10/5/08 Kyrgystan Earthquake

The 6.6 Magnitude quake occurred at Sunday, October 05, 2008 at 15:52:49 UTC (9:52 PM local time)near the village of Nura, about 275 miles east of Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on the border with China. It was felt throughout the Central Asian region. 74 people were killed, 120 injured and dozens of buildings destroyed,, much of in Nura. The damage occurred on both sides of the Chinese-Kyrgystan border.

Geologically, the quake was caused by stresses in the Asian landmass resulting from the collision of India into Eurasia. India is actually a separate tectonic plate, whose head-on collision with Asia has raised the Himalayas and caused many destructive earthquakes. Although the collision is hundreds of miles south of this earthquake the crust is being deformed over a very large area, causing many earthquakes, including this year's China and Pakistan quakes. This is an unusual plate boundary in that two continental plates are hitting head-on. In other areas, one plate may be pushed under another, where they cause large subduction quakes, like the 2004 Sumatra quake that caused the destructive tsunami. Another possibility is that two plate may move sideways past each other, as happens at the San Andreas fault, causing quakes like the 1906 San Francisco quake

(See the Plate Tectonics page for more information on these processes.) The US Geological Survey (USGS) is an invaluable resource in understanding and tracking earthquakes.

See the USGS summary of this quake .

See also the following news stories:

• Deadly earthquake hits Kyrgyzstan (BBC 10/6/08)


• 70 die in Kyrgyzstan earthquake (International Herald Tribune 10/6/08)