Magnitude 6.4 - PAKISTAN
2008 October 28 23:09:58 UTC
Earthquake Details
Magnitude | 6.4 |
---|---|
Date-Time |
|
Location | 30.656°N, 67.361°E |
Depth | 15 km (9.3 miles) set by location program |
Region | PAKISTAN |
Distances | 60 km (40 miles) NE of Quetta, Pakistan 190 km (120 miles) ESE of Kandahar, Afghanistan 195 km (120 miles) NNE of Kalat, Pakistan 640 km (395 miles) WSW of ISLAMABAD, Pakistan |
Location Uncertainty | horizontal +/- 4.8 km (3.0 miles); depth fixed by location program |
Parameters | NST=166, Nph=166, Dmin=459.3 km, Rmss=1.11 sec, Gp= 25°, M-type=regional moment magnitude (Mw), Version=A |
Source |
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Event ID | us2008yscs |
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Earthquake Summary
Felt Reports
At least 300 people killed, 500 injured and several villages destroyed in Baluchistan. Several villages destroyed by landslides in the Ziarat area. Felt (VI) at Quetta. Also felt (III) at Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Tectonic Summary
Earthquakes and active faults in western and northern Pakistan and
adjacent parts of Afghanistan are the result of the India plate moving
northward at a rate of about 40 mm/yr (1.6 inches/yr) and colliding with
the Eurasia plate. Along the northern edge of the Indian subcontinent,
the India plate is subducting beneath the Eurasia plate, causing uplift
that produces the highest mountain peaks in the world, including the
Himalayan, the Karakoram, the Pamir and the Hindu Kush ranges. West and
south of the Himalayan front, the relative motion between the two plates
is oblique, which results in strike-slip, reverse-slip, and oblique-slip
earthquakes. The pattern of elastic waves that were radiated by the
October 28 and 29, 2008, earthquakes implies that each earthquake was the
result of predominantly strike-slip faulting. Seismographically recorded
waveforms imply that the shocks were caused by either left-lateral slip on
a northeast-striking fault or right-lateral slip on a northwest-striking
fault.
The October 28 and 29 earthquakes occurred in the Sulaiman fold-and-thrust belt, a region where geologically young (Tertiary) sedimentary rocks have been folded and squeezed by forces associated with the India-Eurasia collision. The earthquakes are located approximately 80 km east of the 650-km-long Chaman fault, which is a major left-lateral strike-slip fault that accommodates a significant amount of the slip across the plate boundary. The occurrence of the earthquakes suggests that other strike-slip faults are present beneath the fold-and-thrust belt and that they accommodate some of the relative motion of the India and Eurasia plates.
The earthquakes of October 28 and 29, 2008, are located approximately 50 km northeast of the region of most intense damage from the Pakistan earthquake of May 30, 1935 (M 7.6), which is estimated to have killed 30,000 people. The 1935 earthquake probably occurred as the result of left-lateral strike-slip motion on a northeast-striking fault.
Earthquake Information for Pakistan
Earthquake Maps
Scientific & Technical Information
- Preliminary Earthquake Report
- U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center:
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver