1998- Earthquake struck Afghanistan; over 4000 lives are lost

An earthquake has struck northern Afghanistan on February 4, 1998.

The earthquake is centred on the city of Rostaq in the remote province of Takhar, close to the border with Tajikistan.

Afghanistan is situated on a major plate boundary.The location of the country is on the boundary where two tectonic plates, the Iranian Plate and the Eurasian Plate, meet.To the south of Afghanistan, the Indian Plate moves northwards and to the north the Eurasian Plate moves south-eastwards.The collision resulting from the movement of the plates has been under way for 50 million years.Due to this, Afghanistan is vulnerable to earthquakes.

Swedish seismologists measured the earthquake at 6.1 on the Richter scale, which is not considered extreme but the conditions of where the earthquake happens must be taken into consideration.

This earthquake has caused more than 4000 people to die, more than 15 000 being made homeless and about 10 000 injured. Dozens of villages have also been destroyed. The United Nations and the International Red Cross is still trying to verify this information.

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement has sent a team from Dushanbe to the affected region for relief efforts.The European Union (EU) offered £1.3m of relief aid including blankets, medical equipment, water and tents.

Nothing can be done to stop natural disasters, like earthquakes and volcano erruptions from happening, but it is possible to minimize such damage from these events.

As money is needed for research by the scientist, people might want to donate some money for the scientist to creat a device that can detect natural disasters. By sending out warnings, people can then evacuate the place and find a safe area for them to live in. By doing so, more lives can then be saved.





Biblography

http://cires.colorado.edu/~bilham/Afghan.pdf

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/4/newsid_2534000/2534279.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_4,_1998_Afghanistan_earthquake