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Extra Monday March
4, 2002, last updated on March 5 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
Large
earthquake hits Afghanistan
A major earthquake
of magnitude 7.3 occurred in the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan approximately
150 miles north-northeast of Kabul at about 7:08 a.m. Eastern Standard
Time yesterday, March 3, 2002, according to early USGS reports. The intermediate-depth
quake shook South Asia, from Afghanistan and Pakistan to northern India.
The epicenter was in the remote province of Samangan, where a rock slide
flattened 100 homes. At least 100 people are dead and hundreds more homeless.
This earthquake is the strongest to hit the region since a magnitude
7.2 quake on Dec. 30, 1983, which killed 14 people in Pakistan and 12 in
Afghanistan. A magnitude 6.9 quake based in the same region on May 30,
1998, killed more than 5,000 people.
Visit the USGS
Earthquake Bulletin site for more information.
Lisa M. Pinsker
