The 2019 Kashmir earthquake struck regions of

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

with an

epicentre The epicenter, epicentre () or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates. Surface damage Before the instrumental pe ...

Azad Kashmir Azad Jammu and Kashmir (; ), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir, is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entitySee: * * * and constituting the western portion of the larger Ka ...

on 24 September at 16:02

local time Local time is the time observed in a specific locality. There is no canonical definition. Originally it was mean solar time, but since the introduction of time zones it is generally the time as determined by the time zone in effect, with daylight s ...

(11:02 UTC). It had a magnitude of 5.4 and a maximum felt intensity of VII (''very strong'') on the

Modified Mercalli scale The Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MM, MMI, or MCS), developed from Giuseppe Mercalli's Mercalli intensity scale of 1902, is a seismic intensity scale used for measuring the intensity of shaking produced by an earthquake. It measures the eff ...

. There was severe damage in

Mirpur District The Mirpur District ( ur, ) is one of the 10 districts of Pakistan's dependent territory of Azad Kashmir. The Mirpur District is bounded on the north by the Kotli District, on the east by the Bhimber District, on the south by the Gujrat Dis ...

, causing the deaths of 40 people and injuring a further 850. The epicentre of the shallow quake was near the city of

Mirpur, Pakistan Mirpur ( phr, , translit=mirpur; ur, , translit=mīrpūr), officially known as New Mirpur City ( ur, , translit=shèhar nayā mīrpur), is the capital of Mirpur district located in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan. It is the second largest city of Azad K ...

. The tremors were felt in the Kashmir region,

Punjab (Pakistan) Punjab (; , ) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in central-eastern region of the country, Punjab is the second-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the largest province by population. It shares land borders with the ...

Punjab (India) Punjab (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northern India. Forming part of the larger Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, the state is bordered by the States and union territories of India, Indian states of Himachal ...

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...

and northern parts of India including

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

Tectonic setting

Kashmir lies at the southern margin of the broad zone of

continental collision In geology, continental collision is a phenomenon of plate tectonics that occurs at convergent boundaries. Continental collision is a variation on the fundamental process of subduction, whereby the subduction zone is destroyed, mountains prod ...

between the

Eurasian Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago ...

and

Indian Plate The Indian Plate (or India Plate) is a minor tectonic plate straddling the equator in the Eastern Hemisphere. Originally a part of the ancient continent of Gondwana, the Indian Plate broke away from the other fragments of Gondwana , began mov ...

s. The rate of

convergence Convergence may refer to: Arts and media Literature *''Convergence'' (book series), edited by Ruth Nanda Anshen * "Convergence" (comics), two separate story lines published by DC Comics: **A four-part crossover storyline that united the four Wei ...

between these plates near this location is 38 mm per year. The main structures involved in accommodating this convergence are large

thrust fault A thrust fault is a break in the Earth's crust, across which older rocks are pushed above younger rocks. Thrust geometry and nomenclature Reverse faults A thrust fault is a type of reverse fault that has a dip of 45 degrees or less. If ...

s, such as the

Main Central Thrust The Main Central Thrust is a major geological fault where the Indian Plate has pushed under the Eurasian Plate along the Himalaya. The fault slopes down to the north and is exposed on the surface in a NW-SE direction (strike). It is a thrust fault ...

and the

Main Frontal Thrust The Main Frontal Thrust (MFT), also known as the Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT) is a geological fault in the Himalayas that defines the boundary between the Himalayan foothills and Indo-Gangetic Plain. The fault is well expressed on the surfac ...

. Within the frontal thrust zone, there are many individual thrust faults. Many damaging earthquakes have resulted from movement on such thrust faults, such as the

2005 Kashmir earthquake The 2005 Kashmir earthquake occurred at on 8 October in Pakistani-administered Azad Kashmir. It was centred near the city of Muzaffarabad, and also affected nearby Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and some areas of Indian-administered Jammu and ...

which caused the deaths of around 87,000 people.

Earthquake

The earthquake which occurred at a depth of 10 km was the result of thrust faulting associated with the active convergent boundary. Further analysis has showed that it occurred on a near horizontal-dipping

on the interface of the plate boundary. The

Main Himalayan Thrust The Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT) is a décollement under the Himalaya Range. This thrust fault follows a NW-SE strike, reminiscent of an arc, and gently dip towards the north, beneath the region. It is the largest active continental megathrust f ...

; the

décollement Décollement () is a gliding plane between two rock masses, also known as a basal detachment fault. Décollements are a deformational structure, resulting in independent styles of deformation in the rocks above and below the fault. They are ass ...

structure underlying the Himalayas was the source of the earthquake. The rupture occurred on a segment of the décollement where it branches up to the surface via the Main Frontal Thrust. Up to 0.4 meter of slip occurred during the event, releasing a fraction of energy accumulated since a large quake in 1555. Modelling of the earthquake with

InSAR Interferometric synthetic aperture radar, abbreviated InSAR (or deprecated IfSAR), is a radar technique used in geodesy and remote sensing. This geodetic method uses two or more synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images to generate maps of surface defo ...

data indicated a moment magnitude of 6.0.

Damage

The earthquake caused severe damage to 135 houses in Mirpur District, with a further 319 being partially damaged, most in Mirpur and just four in

Bhimber District The Bhimber District ( ur, ) is the southernmost district of the 10 districts of Pakistan's dependent territory of Azad Kashmir. It has an area of 1516 km², and the district headquarter is the town of Bhimber. History The area is rich in ...

. Two bridges were reported damaged and parts of several roads were affected, particularly 14 km of the Main Jatlan Road. According to the chairman of Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), "In Mirpur, besides the city, a small town Jatlan, and two small villages Manda and Afzalpur" were among the worst-hit areas. According to him, the main road which runs alongside a river from Mangla to Jatlan suffered major damage. According to the officials, the

Mangla Dam The Mangla Dam ( ur, ) is a multipurpose dam situated on the Jhelum River in the Mirpur District of Azad Kashmir. It is the sixth-largest dam in the world. The village of Mangla, which sits at the mouth of the dam, serves as its namesake. I ...

, Pakistan's major water reservoir, was spared. However, the dam's power house was closed, which resulted in a loss of 900

megawatts The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Watt ...

to Pakistan's national power grid. At 7:20 pm, power generation at Mangla was resumed, restoring 700 MW to the national grid. According to a media report, cracks and fissures had appeared in the

Upper Jhelum canal The Upper Jhelum Canal is an irrigation canal in Pakistan that provides water to 1.8 million acres of farmland. The Upper Jhelum Canal starts at the Jhelum River at Mangla Dam. It runs through Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin in Punjab, Pakistan, a ...

. Flood water had managed to enter the Chak Nigah village in Jatlan town. The canal was subsequently shut as a precautionary measure.

Casualties

Forty people have died and more than 850 injured as per the reports published on 26 September. Of those who died, thirty-three were in Mirpur District, four in Bhimber District, and one more in Jhelum District. ''Reuters'' reported, citing architects, that the large number of casualties were due to shoddy building construction methods and weak construction standards in Pakistan. Mirpur's

deputy inspector general of police A Deputy Inspector General of Police (abbreviated as DIG) is a high-ranking official position in Police in Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Nigeria and Sri Lanka. India Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) is a rank i ...

Sardar Gulfaraz Khan stated that a large number of deaths were caused due to the collapse of old houses in the villages.

Response

The

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Azad Jammu and Kashmir Azad Jammu and Kashmir (; ), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir, is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entitySee: * * * and constituting the western portion of the larger Ka ...

Farooq Haider Khan Raja Farooq Haider Khan is a Kashmiri politician and former Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K). He is a senior member of the Pakistan Muslim League (N). Early life Raja Muhammad Farooq Haider Khan was born on 14 February 1955. He r ...

, cut short a visit to

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

and went back to his native region immediately after the reports of the damage emerged. NDMA vehicles laden with 200 tents, 800 blankets, 200 kitchen sets and 100 medical kits were dispatched to affected areas.

Aftershocks

On 26 September at 12:30, two days after the major earthquake, another earthquake struck Mirpur, which led to a further 67 people being injured and one death reported. It was of magnitude 4.7 and centered at Thothal Mirpur at the depth of .

References

External links

* * {{Earthquakes in Pakistan 2019 earthquakes 21st century in Azad Kashmir Earthquakes in Pakistan Disasters in Azad Kashmir September 2019 events in Pakistan