Earthquakes in Afghanistan through history
From 1900 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 105 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more in Afghanistan. 15 of them reached magnitude 7 or more; the strongest was a magnitude 7.8 on November 15, 1921 (71 km SSW of Jurm, Afghanistan).
The last 30 days · as of
USGS recorded 5 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in the area the map frames in the last 30 days.
The latest: magnitude 4.6 on October 22 (11 km W of Ashkāsham, Afghanistan). The strongest: magnitude 5 on October 1 (4 km SE of Baghlān, Afghanistan).
What the record holds
The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 6.6 on May 30, 1998 (Badakhshan, Takhar), for which NOAA records 4,700 deaths. NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes has 75 here, back to AD 50. NOAA records deaths in 46 of the events here, 17,903 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.8 on April 3, 2026 (35 km S of Jurm, Afghanistan). NOAA’s record here begins in AD 50 with an earthquake (Aikhanum). It grows thinner going back: 60 of the 75 significant earthquakes NOAA lists here are from 1927 on.
The events
- April 3, 2026Earthquake · M 5.835 km S of Jurm, Afghanistan · 12 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI
- August 31, 2025Earthquake · M 6.035 km WSW of Asadābād, Afghanistan · 2,205 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- October 26, 2015Earthquake · M 7.5Hindu Kush region, Afghanistan · 399 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- May 30, 1998Earthquake · M 6.6Badakhshan, Takhar · 4,700 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- February 4, 1998Earthquake · M 5.9Rostaq; Tajikistan: Dushanbe · 2,323 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- June 9, 1956Earthquake · M 7.6Kabul · 100 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- March 4, 1949Earthquake · M 7.535 km SSW of Jurm, AfghanistanUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- November 15, 1921Earthquake · M 7.871 km SSW of Jurm, AfghanistanUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- July 7, 1909Earthquake · M 7.752 km ESE of Farkhār, AfghanistanUSGS · NOAA NCEI
- AD 50EarthquakeAikhanumNOAA NCEI
Good to know
- An event counts for Afghanistan when it began inside its borders. Damage can reach across them.
- USGS counts here start at magnitude 6: the catalogue’s smaller quakes thin out going back, where few instruments listened.
- 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.
- The map frames the box around Afghanistan, its neighbours’ quakes included, so its count runs higher than this page’s.
- 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