Update 11:40 UTC: We are not sure at this point whether a combination of a landslide and an earthquake occurred or just a rain induced landslide. Either way, 4 people have died and our condolences go to their families.
Update 08:48 UTC:
4 people have died in an Afghanistan earthquake from landslides. Scattered reports of 100 damaged houses in a couple of villages in the Rostaq district of Takhar province, Afghanistan has emerged.
This is likely a very low magnitude, shallow earthquake as it has not been reported on many seismometers.
Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 3.0-3.9 (estimated)
Local Time (conversion only below land) : 2014-04-12 2:30
GMT/UTC Time : 2014-04-11 22:00
Depth (Hypocenter) : Likely very shallow (ca. 5km)
On 6/11/2012 5:02:17 AM UTC (about 09:32h local time) an earthquake of magnitude 5.4 occurred in the highly populated region of Baghlan in Afghanistan. The earthquake happened 169km from Kabul.
27 minutes later, a stronger shallower earthquake has occurred. Most people would have been out of their house by the second quake, reducing casualty potential.
Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 1st- 5.4 Mb AND 2nd- 5.6 Mw
UTC Time : 05:02:17AM, Monday, June 11th, 2012 AND 05:29:14AM, Monday, June 11th, 2012
Local time at epicenter : 09:32:17AM, Monday, June 11th, 2012 AND 09:59:14AM, Monday, June 11th, 2012
Depth (Hypocenter) : 49km (USGS) AND 31km (USGS)
Geo-location(s) : The nearest populated places are: Yakhpaj (19km), Khoshkak (17km), Gavmordeh (8km), Wuch (14km), Daragi (14km), Pashakhana (6km), Godri (2km), Gozar-e Langar (19km), Nahrin (15km), Aqsay (20km), Saqaw (13km), Chashmeh-ye Rabat (16km), Gawmurda (16km), Larak (13km), Akakhel (20km). The closest civilian airport is Kunduz (77km).
IMPORTANT UPDATE 15:30 UTC :
– Rescuers have so far pulled two bodies of women from the rubble of the landslide in Baghlan province and expect many others were buried.
– Afghanistan officials said on Monday that some 70 people were trapped in rubble after mud houses collapsed from two strong earthquakes. Landslides typically cause many deaths from earthquakes.
– The U.N. confirmed one other death and said houses were destroyed across five districts.
IMPORTANT UPDATE 13:30 UTC :
– 3 people have been confirmed dead so far
– More than 20 houses have been buried in a landslide .
– some mud houses have been severely damaged
– Afghan SAR forces are searching the rubble to find corpses and even more survivors of the earthquake.
– Similar earthquakes in the past have also been devastating and caused a lot of fatalities
– 10 houses had been destroyed in Ishkamish district in neighbouring Takhar province. No news of injured or death from this area.
UPDATE: The earthquake has been felt III in Kabul, and III-IV in Bagram Airfield (about 120-130km from the earthquake epicenter)
UPDATE: We hope to get some confirmation from military forces in the area as to the effects of this earthquake.
UPDATE: 50 deaths and 150 injuries were seen from a 2002 earthquake occurring very close to the present epicenter with Mw5.8. Almost 1200 fatalities were also seen from the 25 March 2002 event. (The number of fatalities in this earthquake was uncertain due to political situation in Afghanistan at the time of the earthquake. However, United Nations figures estimate approximately 1,200 fatalities in the Nahrin region with at least 100 deaths in the town of Nahrin itself. Another 7,000 people were injured and more than 20,000 were rendered homeless. Many of the injured were flown out by helicopter to the neighbouring towns of Baghlan and Pol-e Khomri.) – ASC-India.
UPDATE: The CATDAT Damaging Earthquakes Database has seen over16 damaging earthquakes within 100km of the epicenter since 1900. An earthquake in 1972 in Baghlan of Mw6.4, a destructive earthquake in north Afghanistan occurred. It destroyed approximately 7,000 houses, killing 450 and injuring 3,000 people in the Baghlan district. The shock caused serious damage and loss of life in the coal mines in the district. The earthquake was felt as far as Tashkent, Murgab and Tarbela, over an area of a radius of 520 km.
UPDATE: The earthquake was felt strongly in Baghlan Province. PAGER is indicating only a 35% chance of fatalities.
An earthquake of magnitude 5.6 occurred in the highly populated region of Baghlan in Afghanistan. The earthquake happened 173km from Kabol. The nearest populated places are: Gavmordeh (12km), Wuch (15km), Daragi (17km), Pashakhana (7km), Godri (5km), Gozar-e Langar (18km), Nahrin (17km), Safedreg (18km), Saqaw (13km), Chashmeh-ye Rabat (13km), Gawmurda (14km), Larak (10km), Akakhel (17km). The closest civilian airport is Kunduz (74km).
for more information and updates, go to: http://earthquake-report.com/2012/06/11/afghanistan-strong-earthquake-hits-populated-area/
Ancient Statue Reveals Prince Who Would Become Buddha
Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor
Date: 06 June 2012 Time:
A newly discovered stele from Mes Aynak, in Afghanistan, reveals a depiction of a prince and monk. The prince is likely the founder of Buddhism.
CREDIT: Jaroslav Poncar
In the ruins of a Buddhist monastery in Afghanistan, archaeologists have uncovered a stone statue that seems to depict the prince Siddhartha before he founded Buddhism.
The stone statue, or stele, was discovered at the Mes Aynak site in a ruined monastery in 2010, but it wasn’t until now that it was analyzed and described. Gérard Fussman, a professor at the Collège de France in Paris, details his study in “The Early Iconography of Avalokitesvara” (Collège de France, 2012).
Standing 11 inches (28 centimeters) high and carved from schist — a stone not found in the area — the stele depicts a prince alongside a monk. Based on a bronze coin found nearby, Fussman estimates the statue dates back at least 1,600 years. Siddhartha lived 25 centuries ago
A newly discovered stele from Mes Aynak, in Afghanistan, reveals a depiction of a prince and monk. The prince is likely the founder of Buddhism.
CREDIT: Jaroslav Poncar
In the ruins of a Buddhist monastery in Afghanistan, archaeologists have uncovered a stone statue that seems to depict the prince Siddhartha before he founded Buddhism.
The stone statue, or stele, was discovered at the Mes Aynak site in a ruined monastery in 2010, but it wasn’t until now that it was analyzed and described. Gérard Fussman, a professor at the Collège de France in Paris, details his study in “The Early Iconography of Avalokitesvara” (Collège de France, 2012).
Standing 11 inches (28 centimeters) high and carved from schist — a stone not found in the area — the stele depicts a prince alongside a monk. Based on a bronze coin found nearby, Fussman estimates the statue dates back at least 1,600 years. Siddhartha lived 25 centuries ago.
The prince is shown sitting on a round wicker stool, his eyes looking down and with his right foot against his left knee. He is “clad in a dhoti (a garment), with a turban, wearing necklaces, earrings and bracelets, sitting under a pipal tree foliage. On the back of the turban, two large rubans [are] flowing from the head to the shoulders,” writes Fussman in his new book. “The turban is decorated by a rich front-ornament, without any human figure in it.” [Photos of the statue and ancient Buddhist monastery]
Mes Aynak is located about 25 miles (40 km) east of Kabul and contains an ancient Buddhist monastic complex.
CREDIT: Jerome Starkey CC Attribution Share-Alike 2.0 Generic
The monk stands at the prince’s right side, his right forearm shown upright. In his right hand the monk holds a lotus flower or palm (now broken), and in his left is a round object of some kind.
Based on the iconography of the stele, particularly the pipal leaves, Fussman believes the prince is Gautama Siddhartha Sakyamuni, who is said to have achieved enlightenment, become a Buddha — someone of divine wisdom and virtue — and founded the religion of Buddhism. This stele shows him at an early moment in his life, when he has yet to start his fateful journey of enlightenment.
Siddhartha’s story
According to the story, Siddhartha’s father wanted him to follow a worldly path and tried to keep his son cloistered in a palace.
“Lotus pools were made for me at my father’s house solely for my use; in one, blue lotuses flowered, in another white, and in another red,” says Siddharthain ancient writings attributed to him. “A white sunshade was held over me day and night so that I would not be troubled by cold or heat, dust or grit or dew.” (This translation is from Rupert Gethin’s “The Foundations of Buddhism,” Oxford University Press, 1998.)
The prince’s life would change when he ventured outside the palace and saw the real world. “As soon as he left the palace he became pessimistic,” Fussman told LiveScience, “because by meeting these people, he knew that everybody is to work, everybody may become ill, everybody is to die.”
He grew disenchanted with palace life and left, becoming a poor ascetic.
Tibetan clues
Fussman said that this stele supports the idea that there was a monastic cult, in antiquity, dedicated to Siddhartha’s pre-enlightenment life. This idea was first proposed in a 2005 article inthe journalEast and West by UCLA professor Gregory Schopen. Schopen found evidence for the cult when studying the Tibetan version of the monastic code, Mulasarvastivada vinaya.
It’s a “cult focused on his image that involved taking it in procession through the region and into town,” Schopen wrote. “A cult tied to a cycle of festivals celebrating four moments, not in the biography of the Buddha but in the pre-enlightenment period of the life of Siddhartha.”
One section of the code authorizes carrying the image of Siddhartha (referred to as a Bodhisattva) on a wagon.
Whether or not the newly discovered stele went on a wagon ride, Fussman said the depiction of Gautama Siddhartha Sakyamuni before he became a Buddha provides further evidence of the existence of this cult. “Here also you have an instance of it,” he said in the interview, “the Buddha before he became a Buddha.”
Excavations continue at the Mes Aynak site as scientists explore the complex in an effort to save the artifacts before the area is disturbed by copper mining.
May 18, 2012 – Moderate earthquakes in Afghanistan and Algeria
Algeria earthquake
The earthquake is very shallow (if preliminary data will be confirmed). Epicenter is approx. 20 km from Brida and approx. 30 km from Aflou. Brida has a population of 5,742 (1998 cencus) and Aflou has a population of 48,000 inhabitants. Earthquake-Report.com has no certainty at all about the faith of this 2 villages. The epicenter location given by seismological agencies has almost always an error margin of +10 km. We do not see major problems if the epicenter will be confirmed where it is located now, but when closer to one of both villages or towns, damage cannot be excluded.
– The earthquake happened in the Sahara Atlas at a approx. altitude of 1,400 meter.
Update 13:39 UTC : EMSC has changed its parameters from M5.1 to M4.7 and from a depth of 2 km to a depth of 5 km. These latest values are far better (less dangerous) than the initial ones.
Moderate earthquake relatively close to Kabul, Afghanistan
The epicenter of this earthquake was only at 38 km from Afghanistan. EMSC and USGS data versions are completely different in focal depth at the time of writing (13:25 UTC). EMSC reports a depth of 80 km and USGS a depth of 10 km. This kind of difference in focal depth is almost like early morning and sunset !
Moderate earthquake shakes the interior of Honshu, Japan We have a sudden surge in people from Japan, which indicates mostly an earthquake
We have NO earthquake data yet, but max. JMA intensity is 4 so far.
– The epicenter of this earthquake was in between Sano and Tsukuba, inland. The depth of the hypocenter makes it a far away felt earthquake. The way people felt this earthquake is another proof that similar magnitudes and similar depths are being felt completely different from one area to another.
– The earthquake has been well felt in Tokyo too (see experience reports).
– JMA 4 intensity (scale from 0 to 7) at Ibaraki-ken Nambu, Tochigi-ken Nambu, Saitama-ken Hokubu and Saitama-ken Nambu. Earthquake-report.com uses 5+ as a potentially damaging intensity. The greater Tokyo area was reported as a JMA 3 intensity
Strong (harmless) earthquake off the coast of Chile
The epicenter was located at more than 500 km out of the coast. The Magnitude is totally harmless to generate a tsunami. The hypocenter depth is 10 km and indicates that the earthquake was generated by tensions in a separating oceanic plate (separating Nazca and Antarctic plates area). The satellite map below shows the dividing area very well.
Landscape in the epicenter area – Panoramio Image courtesy Romin Fararoon
Update : To simplify what happened, the depth can also be seen as the distance away from the location above it. Therefore deep earthquakes are felt the same way in many many locations as the waves will reach the surface with a similar strength over tens of km’s.
Update : Data as seen by other seismological agencies than USGS :
GFZ : M 5.5 @ 199 km
EMSC : M 5.4 @ 221 km
Good signs that certainly NO damage will have been inflicted
Update : This earthquake was felt in such a wide area because of the combination of magnitude and depth
Update : nearly 7 million people will have felt a weak shaking
Update : a max. weak shaking has been felt in a very wide area
What initiated this article
Felt it Reports arrive from Pakistan
Preliminary data (not confirmed yet) are mentioning a 5.7 magnitude earthquake at very unsure depth
Light shaking is reported from Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Also from Afghanistan , Uzbekistan
Hopefully a deep earthquake ! Magnitude will be around 5.8
We are receiving a lot of I Have Felt It forms at the moment
Luckily, USGS reports a (preliminary) 5.8 earthquake at a (preliminary) depth of 219 km , which makes this earthquake harmless !
Afghanistan Helicopter Crash: More Than 20 Navy SEAL Team 6 Members Killed
By KIMBERLY DOZIER and LOLITA C. BALDOR 08/ 6/11 12:07 PM ET
WASHINGTON — The Associated Press has learned that more than 20 Navy SEALs from the unit that killed Osama bin Laden were among those lost in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan.
The operators from SEAL Team Six were flown by a crew of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. That’s according to one current and one former U.S. official. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because families are still being notified of the loss of their loved ones.
One source says the team was thought to include 22 SEALs, three Air Force air controllers, seven Afghan Army troops, a dog and his handler, and a civilian interpreter, plus the helicopter crew.
The sources thought this was the largest single loss of life ever for SEAL Team Six, known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group.
