M 6.4 - 92 km E of Kyzyl-Eshme, Kyrgyzstan

Tectonic Summary

The June 26, 2016 M 6.4 earthquake in Kyrgyzstan, near the country's southern border with Tajikistan, occurred as the result of shallow reverse faulting. Focal mechanism solutions indicate the earthquake ruptured a reverse fault dipping moderately to the northwest, or to the southeast. The location of the earthquake is within the lithosphere of the Eurasia plate, approximately 750 km north of the India-Eurasia plate boundary, where the collision of these two plates at a rate of about 40 mm/yr drives regional north-south compression and the uplift of mountain ranges like the Himalaya, Pamir, and Hindu Kush. The zone of tectonic deformation associated with their convergence extends to the north of the principal boundary for more than 1000 km.

The tectonics of the epicentral region are complex, and both strike-slip and reverse faulting earthquakes have occurred in the vicinity of the June 26 event. In August of 1974, a M 7.3 earthquake occurred 45 km south-southeast of the 2016 event; its aftershock sequence included earthquakes generated by both strike-slip and reverse faulting. A M 6.7 earthquake 42 km to the east in October 2008, with a similar focal mechanism solution and depth as the 2016 event, resulted in 74 fatalities.