A magnitude 6 earthquake has hit Afghanistan near its border with Pakistan, killing more than 1,400 people, according to the government. Flooding and debris have hampered rescue efforts.

Here is more about what happened and why Afghanistan is vulnerable to earthquakes:

What happened?

At 11:47pm (19:47 GMT) on Sunday, the earthquake shook Nangarhar and Kunar provinces in eastern Afghanistan. It was 8km (5 miles) deep, making it a shallow tremor.

Shallower earthquakes tend to cause more damage because the epicentre of the quake and seismic waves are closer to the Earth’s surface. Seismic waves from deep earthquakes have to travel a greater distance to get to the surface, which causes them to lose energy.

Twenty minutes after the first earthquake, a magnitude 4.5 quake hit north of Basawul in Nangarhar province. Since then, multiple tremors have struck near the provincial capital, Jalalabad, and Basawul with magnitudes ranging from 4.3 to 5.2.

Where in Afghanistan did the initial earthquake hit?

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the initial quake was centred 27km (17 miles) northeast of Jalalabad near Kunar province, which is located just north of Nangarhar.

Jalalabad is 150km (93 miles) east of Kabul. It is a key trading city because it is close to neighbouring Pakistan. The city is home to about 300,000 people, according to the municipality.

The majority of the city’s buildings are low-rise structures made primarily from concrete and brick while the outskirts feature houses constructed with mud bricks and wood.

Jalalabad is also an agricultural producer. With the Kabul River flowing through the city, it grows citrus fruits and rice.

How many people have died, and how many are injured?

At least 1,411 people have been confirmed killed in the worst hit province, Kunar, and more than 3,000 injured, Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Tuesday.

In a post on X, he said at least 3,124 people were injured while more than 5,400 houses were destroyed.

Afghan government officials have warned that the casualty numbers could rise further as rescue efforts continue.

What does a magnitude 6 earthquake mean?

The intensity of earthquakes is measured on the Richter scale, which ranges from 1 to 10.

An earthquake of magnitude 6 is considered strong. Objects may fall, and houses may sustain damage.

What do rescue efforts look like?

The quake zone’s mountainous terrain and lack of infrastructure are the primary challenges to rescue and aid efforts, and its roads, which were in poor shape before the quake, are now further damaged or blocked altogether.

“There’s been lots of landslides and rock falls, and access has been very limited to everybody in the first 24 hours,” Indrika Ratwatte, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan, said at a news briefing in Kabul.

Ibrahim Ahmed, the head of programmes for the Islamic Relief charity in Afghanistan, told Al Jazeera that access to some of these areas has always been difficult.

“Even before this situation, some areas we could reach only by foot. We are not able to use cars or any other means now with the flood, with the collapse of all the villages, with the landslide – we are not able to access them,” he said.

He said his charity is relying on local volunteers in the worst-hit areas to bring food to those affected.

Authorities have flown hundreds of helicopter flights to take the injured to hospitals in Jalalabad and Kabul.

Fourteen-year-old Akhlaq from Kunar’s Nurgal district was one of them. Five members of his family were killed when their house collapsed. He had to pull his father from the rubble himself.

“There are victims who are still under the rubble, but there is nobody to help them and pull them out,” he told the AFP news agency.

How has the international community responded?

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his “full solidarity with the people of Afghanistan” in a post on X  on Monday.

Guterres continued: “The @UN team in Afghanistan is mobilized and will spare no effort to assist those in need in the affected areas.”

Governments are also making pledges of aid.

India has sent 1,000 tents to Kabul and 15 tonnes of food to Kunar and was dispatching more. The European Union said on Tuesday that it plans to send 130 tonnes of emergency supplies and pledged 1 million euros ($1.16m) for quake relief. The United Kingdom said it would send 1 million pounds ($1.35m), and Iran said it was ready to dispatch medical and humanitarian aid.

Complicating the efforts are cuts to foreign aid since the Taliban retook power in 2021. Experts said those cuts were impeding the response to the earthquake in a country already facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises after decades of conflict.

What else is hindering the rescue efforts?

Flash floods hit Nangarhar province on Saturday, damaging roads and farmland.

Zakeria Shnizai, an earthquake geologist affiliated with the University of Oxford, explained that “due to the mountainous terrain in Afghanistan, flooding has severely hampered rescue operations by blocking roads, destroying bridges and isolating communities in the earthquake-affected area.

“These challenges have made it extremely difficult for emergency teams to reach individuals who are injured or trapped under debris. The use of heavy equipment has been restricted, and the risk of landslides or rock avalanches has increased,” Shnizai said.

He added that the delivery of critical aid such as food, water and medical supplies has also become harder, resulting in delays in response times.

Injured Afghan children receive treatment at a hospital in Jalalabad [Nasim Nazari/AFP]
“Research has shown that seasonal rains and weather conditions can intensify earthquake-induced vulnerabilities by triggering landslides, damaging access routes and disrupting communication lines,” Abdullah Ansari, a research professor at the Earthquake Monitoring Center at Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat, Oman, told Al Jazeera.

“In the current situation, floodwaters have blocked key transportation corridors, complicating the delivery of aid and slowing rescue teams. This interaction of seismic and hydrological hazards highlights the need for multihazard preparedness strategies to improve resilience in Afghanistan.”

Besides the flash floods, rocky terrain and debris resulting from the earthquakes have hampered rescue efforts. “The roads are not paved. Mostly, they are covered with rocks because of the earthquake, and it’s very difficult to go there right now,” Al Jazeera’s Mohsin Momand reported from Kabul.

Limited resources, poor infrastructure and a lack of comprehensive early-warning systems impede timely evacuations and risk mitigation, Ansari added.

Is Afghanistan prone to earthquakes?

Afghanistan is situated in one of Central Asia’s most seismically active zones, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet, leading to frequent moderate to strong earthquakes.

There has been recent seismic activity in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush region was struck by magnitude 5.6 and 5.2 tremors on August 27 and August 19, respectively. Central Pakistan saw a magnitude 5.5 earthquake on June 29 while a magnitude 5.7 quake was recorded on May 10.

In 2023, an earthquake of magnitude 6.3 hit Afghanistan’s western province of Herat, killing more than 2,000 people. In June 2022, a magnitude 6 earthquake hit eastern Afghanistan’s provinces of Paktika, Paktia, Khost and Nangarhar.

“The ongoing convergence of these plates generates significant crustal stress, causing numerous faults and leading to frequent seismic activity across the country and its surrounding regions,” Shnizai said.

“Several major fault systems traverse the country, including the Chaman, Herat, Kunar, Panjshir, Sarobi and Spin Ghar faults as well as thrust faults in the Hindu Kush region.”

But it isn’t just the fault lines that make Afghanistan’s earthquakes so deadly, experts said.

“Although Afghanistan is situated in a high seismic zone, its vulnerability to earthquakes is affected by other factors,” Noor Ahmad Akhundzadah, a visiting scholar at Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, told Al Jazeera.

“Afghanistan’s construction sector is highly vulnerable to earthquakes due to traditional building methods, inadequate adherence to building codes and limited awareness of seismic hazards. Historically, Afghan people have built houses in disaster-prone areas, often ignoring modern safety standards,” Akhundzadah said.

He explained that much of the housing, especially in rural areas, is made of unreinforced mud, brick and masonry, making it highly prone to earthquake damage. Many buildings are constructed without modern seismic reinforcement.

Limited resources, poor infrastructure and a lack of comprehensive early-warning systems impede timely evacuations and risk mitigation, Ansari added.

The Taliban government resumed power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as US forces backing the government of former President Ashraf Ghani pulled out. Since then, the country has been marred by political instability.

Since the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan’s economy has contracted by 27 percent, resulting in economic stagnation, according to the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in 2024. Last year, Kanni Wignaraja, director of the UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, described 69 percent of Afghans as “subsistence insecure”, which means they lacked basic resources.

However, the country’s gross domestic product is estimated to have grown by 2.5 percent in 2024, the second consecutive year of economic expansion, according to the World Bank.

“The war has damaged infrastructure, making proper disaster management nearly impossible, and has weakened the institutions responsible for sustainable development and risk mitigation,” Akhundzadah said.

What is the latest situation on the ground?

The highway from Jalalabad to Kunar leading to the epicentre of the deadly earthquake has been reopened for traffic, Afghanistan’s RTA broadcaster reported, citing the Ministry of Public Works.

However, many roads within Kunar remain inaccessible as first responders work to clear rubble, ministry spokesperson Mohammad Ashraf Haqshenas said.