Qualla: 2023 Herat Earthquakes

2023 Herat Earthquakes: Introduction

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Voice of America, Public domain. The first earthquake hit at 11:11 in the morning on October 7, 2023. Thirty-one minutes later, a second one struck. Both measured magnitude 6.3. Then on October 11, another 6.3. On October 15, a fourth. The ground beneath Herat Province would not stop moving, and with each tremor more mud-brick homes folded inward on the people inside them. The World Health Organization would eventually count 1,482 dead. Ninety percent were women and children. At the time the earthquakes struck, most men were outdoors. The women and children were home.

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Image: Voice of America | Public domain

2023 Herat Earthquakes: Fault Lines Visible and Invisible

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Marius Arnesen from Oslo, Norway, CC BY-SA 2.0. Western Afghanistan sits within one of the most tectonically complex zones on Earth, where the Arabian, Indian, and Eurasian plates collide. The Harirud Fault runs near the city, though the earthquakes of October 2023 were caused by a different structure -- a blind thrust fault b...

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Image: Marius Arnesen from Oslo, Norway | CC BY-SA 2.0

2023 Herat Earthquakes: Digging With Bare Hands

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Voice of America, Public domain. Rescue efforts began immediately, and they were desperate. In the affected villages, people used shovels and their bare hands to pull survivors from the rubble. Communication outages and blocked roads hampered organized relief. The national director of World Vision Afghanistan sa...

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Image: Voice of America | Public domain

2023 Herat Earthquakes: A Tent City in Winter

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mikenorton, CC BY-SA 3.0. The earthquakes struck a population already in crisis. Since the Taliban takeover in 2021, foreign aid to Afghanistan had dropped sharply. Existing relief organizations were underfunded before the ground started shaking. Now thousands of newly homeless families faced the approach...

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Image: Mikenorton | CC BY-SA 3.0

2023 Herat Earthquakes: The World Responds

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alimosavisam, CC BY-SA 4.0. Despite the geopolitical isolation of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, international aid arrived from dozens of countries. Kazakhstan sent 1,659 tons of supplies and 45 rescue workers who covered 76 affected areas in their first 24 hours. Iran dispatched 50 rescue workers with advanced...

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Image: Alimosavisam | CC BY-SA 4.0

2023 Herat Earthquakes: Building Back, One Wall at a Time

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Marius Arnesen from Oslo, Norway, CC BY-SA 2.0. By January 2024, at least 3,000 new houses had been constructed in Zinda Jan, some using superadobe building techniques -- an earthquake-resistant method employed in Afghanistan for the first time. Nearly 300 schools had been damaged, affecting 180,000 students. Parts of the Grea...

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Image: Marius Arnesen from Oslo, Norway | CC BY-SA 2.0