A powerful earthquake jolted eastern Kunar province of Afghanistan late on Sunday, killing at least 800 people and injuring 2,500 others, with authorities fearing a rise in the death toll.
Surrounded by mountains, Afghanistan is prone to earthquakes as it sits near the junction of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, a highly active seismic zone.
Many of the recent quakes have had shallow depths, which increased the intensity of shaking on the surface and destruction.
Here is a timeline of major earthquakes that struck the country since the Taliban returned to power in 2021 and before.
August 31, 2025: A 6.0 magnitude earthquake shook eastern Kunar province, killing more than 800 people and injuring more than 2,000 others, and flattening hundreds of houses and buildings.
October 7, 2023: A 6.3 magnitude earthquake and subsequent aftershocks in Herat province killed more than 2,000 people and injured more than 9,000. The earthquake was the country’s deadliest in years.
March 21, 2023: A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck the northeastern province of Badakhshan, killing at least 13 people in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
September 5, 2022: At least eight people were killed after tremors hit Kunar province, causing dozens of houses to collapse.
June 22, 2022: A shallow, 6.1-magnitude earthquake in the eastern provinces of Paktika, Paktia, Khost, and Nangarhar killed at least 1,036 people and caused thousands of homes to collapse.
January 17, 2022: A 5.9 magnitude shallow earthquake in the western province of Badghis killed at least 26 people.
Oct 26, 2015: A magnitude 7.5 earthquake, one of the most powerful quakes in the country’s history, killed 399 in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
Header image: A picture of a USGS map which shows the area where the earthquake in Afghanistan on Sunday occurred. — AFP
