An earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter Scale hit Tajikistan late Friday night. Strong tremors were felt across the north Indian subcontinent with tremors in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, the Delhi-NCR and Uttarakhand.
The earthquake struck the Tajikistan-Xinjiang border region at a depth of 86 km (53.4 miles). The area of the epicenter is largely unpopulated mountain terrain, part of the mighty Pamir mountains. It is located in the Badakhshan National Park, part of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) in southeastern Tajikistan.
The quake was felt by millions of people especially in the denser-populated areas of northern Pakistan and India.
The entire southern Central Asian region, including Tajikistan, lies in an active seismic belt where severe earthquakes are common. Seismologists have long studied the region, especially in connection with the massive hydroelectric dams and other public works in the area.
Tajikistan is a country in Central Asia surrounded by Afghanistan, China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. It's known for rugged mountains, popular for hiking and climbing. The Fann Mountains, near the national capital Dushanbe, have snow-capped peaks that rise over 5,000 meters. The range encompasses the Iskanderkulsky Nature Refuge, a notable bird habitat named for Iskanderkul, a turquoise lake formed by glaciers.
Tajikistan encompasses the smallest amount of land among the five Central Asian states, but in terms of elevation it surpasses them all, enclosing more and higher mountains than any other country in the region. Tajikistan was a constituent (union) republic of the Soviet Union from 1929 until its independence in 1991. The capital is Dushanbe.
Several ethnic ties and outside influences complicate Tajikistan’s national identity to a greater extent than in other Central Asian republics.
More than nine-tenths of Tajikistan’s territory is mountainous; about half lies 10,000 feet (3,000 metres) or more above sea level.
