Earthquakes near Herāt, 2017–2026

The deadliest of them was a magnitude 6.3 on October 7, 2023 (32 km NNE of Zindah Jān, Afghanistan), for which NOAA records 1,482 deaths. 3 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 3 of the events here, 1,489 in all. 2023 had the most magnitude 4.5+ earthquakes: 22 of the 24. 21 came in the 30 days after the strongest, within 150 km of it. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 6.3 on October 15, 2023 (34 km NNW of Herāt, Afghanistan).

• October 15, 2023Earthquake · M 6.334 km NNW of Herāt, Afghanistan · 4 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• October 11, 2023Earthquake · M 6.324 km NNW of Herāt, Afghanistan · 3 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
• October 7, 2023Earthquake · M 6.332 km NNE of Zindah Jān, Afghanistan · 1,482 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• October 7, 2023Earthquake · M 6.325 km NNE of Zindah Jān, AfghanistanUSGS

• An event counts for Herāt when it began within 100 km of its centre, or 200 km for an earthquake of magnitude 7 or more. Damage can reach further.
• USGS counts are its ComCat catalogue’s earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more, aftershocks included.
• NOAA lists significant events only: earthquakes that killed, did about $1 million of damage, reached magnitude 7.5 or intensity X, or raised a tsunami, and eruptions and tsunamis by like measures. Magnitudes before 1900 are its estimates from written accounts.
• Deaths are NOAA’s total for each event, wherever people died, its tsunami and fires included. A tsunami counts the dead its runup records give for this place: NOAA’s total for a tsunami includes its source quake’s.
• A tsunami from elsewhere counts where one of its runups killed or rose a metre or more.
• Counted to October 19, 2026, as is the map. The last 30 days ask USGS again.

How the layers work, where their data comes from and what they can’t tell you: Earthquakes, live, The world through history