The Devastating 2022 M6.2 Afghanistan Earthquake: Challenges, Processes, and 
Implications

Kufner, S.‐K.; Bie, L.; Gao, Y.; Lindner, M.; Waizy, H.; Kakar, Najibullah; Rietbrock, A.

doi:10.1029/2022GL102176

Item

ITEM ACTIONSEXPORT

Add to Basket

Local TagsRelease HistoryDetailsSummary

Released

Journal Article

The Devastating 2022 M6.2 Afghanistan Earthquake: Challenges, Processes, and Implications

Authors

Kufner, S.‐K.
External Organizations;

Bie, L.
External Organizations;

Gao, Y.
External Organizations;

Lindner, M.
External Organizations;

Waizy, H.
External Organizations;

/persons/resource/najib

Kakar, Najibullah
1.2 Global Geomonitoring and Gravity Field, 1.0 Geodesy, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum;

Rietbrock, A.
External Organizations;

External Ressource

No external resources are shared

Fulltext (public)

5020925.pdf
(Publisher version), 4MB

Supplementary Material (public)

There is no public supplementary material available

Citation

Kufner, S., Bie, L., Gao, Y., Lindner, M., Waizy, H., Kakar, N., Rietbrock, A. (2023): The Devastating 2022 M6.2 Afghanistan Earthquake: Challenges, Processes, and Implications. - Geophysical Research Letters, 50, 11, e2022GL102176.
https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL102176

Cite as: https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5020925

Abstract

On June 21st, a Mw6.2 earthquake struck the Afghan-Pakistan-border-region, situated within the India-Asia collision. Thousand thirty-nine deaths were reported, making the earthquake the deadliest of 2022. We investigate the event's rupture processes by combining seismological and geodetic observations, aiming to understand what made it that fatal. Our Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar-constrained slip-model and regional moment-tensor inversion, confirmed through field observations, reveal a sinistral rupture with maximum slip of 1.8 m at 5 km depth on a N20°E striking, sub-vertical fault. We suggest that not only external factors (event-time, building stock) but fault-specific factors made the event excessively destructive. Surface rupture was favored by the rock foliation, coinciding with the fault strike. The distribution of Peak-Ground-Velocity was governed by the sub-vertical fault. Maximum slip was large compared to other events globally and might have resulted in peak-frequencies coinciding with resonance-frequencies of the local buildings and demonstrates the devastating impact of moderate-size earthquakes.