Very strong and shallow M6.8 earthquake hits Tajikistan
A very strong and shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.8 hit Tajikistan at 00:37 UTC on February 23, 2023. The agency is reporting a depth of 20 km (12.4 miles). EMSC is reporting the same magnitude and depth.
The epicenter was located about 67.3 km (41.8 miles) W of Murghob (population 10 815), 159.2 km (98.9 miles) ENE of Khorugh (population 30 000), and 205.6 km (127.8 miles) NE Ishqoshim (population 26 000), Gorno-Badakhshan, Tajikistan.
3 000 people are estimated to have felt strong shaking, 18 000 moderate and 1 083 000 light.
The USGS issued a Green alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. There is a low likelihood of casualties and damage.
Overall, the population in this region resides in structures that are vulnerable to earthquake shaking, though resistant structures exist. The predominant vulnerable building types are adobe block and log construction.
Recent earthquakes in this area have caused secondary hazards such as landslides that might have contributed to losses.
Estimated population exposure to earthquake shaking
Selected cities exposed
Regional seismicity
Featured image credit: TW/SAM, Google
The absolute majority of the institutes of geophysics and geology including the USGS are still denying that the number of earthquakes has increased. Actually, the number of earthquakes has increased enormously over the last two decades, especially in the last a few years. However, the denial of this obvious fact that can be observed by the people of the whole world is not the most outrageous issue. There are some mainstream scientists who accept that there is an increase in earthquakes but they claim that the reason has to do with the increase of the CO2 emission. Those people are coming up with papers that superficially support this view and those papers are published in peer-reviewed science journals. Can you believe it?!