Earthquakes in Afghanistan, 2017–2026
From 2017 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 394 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in Afghanistan. The strongest was a magnitude 6.5 on March 21, 2023 (40 km SSE 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 on August 31, 2025 (35 km WSW of Asadābād, Afghanistan), for which NOAA records 2,205 deaths. 15 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 12 of the events here, 4,830 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 5.8 on April 3, 2026 (35 km S of Jurm, Afghanistan).
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
- January 11, 2024Earthquake · M 6.445 km SSW of Jurm, AfghanistanUSGS
- 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
- March 21, 2023Earthquake · M 6.540 km SSE of Jurm, Afghanistan · 19 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- June 21, 2022Earthquake · M 6.0Paktika Province; Pakistan · 1,039 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
Good to know
- An event counts for Afghanistan when it began inside its borders. Damage can reach across them.
- 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.
- 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