M 6.0 - 55 km SW of Kh?st, Afghanistan

Tectonic Summary

Earthquakes and active faults in eastern Afghanistan and western and northern Pakistan are the result of the India plate moving northward at a rate of about 40 mm/yr (1.6 inches/yr) and colliding with the Eurasia plate. Along the northern edge of the Indian subcontinent, the India plate is subducting beneath the Eurasia plate, causing uplift that produces the highest mountain peaks in the world, including the Himalayan, the Karakoram, the Pamir and the Hindu Kush ranges. West and south of the Himalayan front, the relative motion between the two plates is oblique, which results in strike-slip, reverse-slip, and oblique-slip earthquakes. The pattern of elastic waves that were radiated by the June 21, 2022 earthquake indicate the event was predominantly strike-slip faulting, either left-lateral slip on a northeast-striking fault or right-lateral slip on a northwest-striking fault.

The June 21, 2022 earthquake is about 500km (300 miles) north-northeast of a deadly magnitude 6.4 earthquake that occurred on October 10th 2008 in western Pakistan that killed 166 people and destroyed several villages from triggered landslides.