Families in Afghanistan’s mountainous northeast know the feeling. A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck near Jurm on Wednesday, July 1, at 17:57:03 UTC, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The USGS placed it about 50 km southwest of the town, in Badakhshan province.
It came from deep underground, at 216.7 kilometres (134.65 miles). That kind of depth tends to soften what people feel at the surface, even though the tremor may be noticed over a wide area. India Today described the quake as relatively deep and said it may have reduced the intensity of shaking.
No immediate reports of casualties or damage had come in.
Not the first this month
Residents of the area had already felt the ground move. A magnitude 5.2 earthquake hit on June 22, about 42 kilometres south-southwest of Jurm, at a depth of 207 km. Another strong quake followed on June 27, with its epicenter in the Hindu Kush region. The Pakistan Meteorological Department measured it at magnitude 5.9, while the USGS gave it a stronger 6.1.
That one sent people in Pakistan rushing out of their homes. It was widely felt in Islamabad, in eastern Punjab, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and in Kashmir, and it shook Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan, the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority said. Again, no casualties or damage were reported.
Why even moderate quakes worry people here
Jurm lies near the collision zone of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, and the Hindu Kush range is known for deep tremors that carry across Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of Central Asia.
Rugged terrain, weak infrastructure and remote mountain villages make rescue and relief especially hard after a major quake, India Today noted. Recent history explains the unease. In September 2025, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake in eastern Afghanistan killed more than 800 people at first. As rescuers reached remote areas, the toll climbed past 2,200, with at least 2,800 injured, according to Taliban authorities and Reuters.
In October 2023, a series of strong earthquakes near Herat, in the west, killed more than 2,000 people and injured thousands.
A 2005 quake of magnitude 7.6 killed tens of thousands of people in Pakistan and the Kashmir region.
Sources
- Magnitude 5.5 earthquake strikes near Jurm in Afghanistan's Hindu Kush region, no immediate reports of damage | Today News
- Magnitude 5.5 earthquake strikes Afghanistan, no immediate reports of damage
Sources
- Magnitude 5.5 earthquake strikes near Jurm in Afghanistan's Hindu…
- Magnitude 5.5 earthquake strikes Afghanistan, no… – India Today
