Earthquake hits heart of Buddha's homeland

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly, Wiki edit

Map showing area of the 2023 Badakhshan earthquake (Wikipedia)

The Monks of the Mines: The luxurious life of Prince Siddhartha of Bamiyan, Afghanistan

Afghan Buddha (Gandharan Buddhist art)

The future Buddha, Prince Siddhartha Gautama of the Shakya (Saka) clan was born and raised in and around modern Afghanistan -- in ancient Kapilavastu, three seasonal capitals, two of which were certainly Bamiyan (according to Dr. Ranajit Pal), Kabul (Kapil), and we speculate Mes Aynak, now the site of the world's largest unexcavated Buddhist temple complex of the extent of about one square mile (soon to be razed by a Chinese mining interest to extract copper and rare earth elements for profit, much as the US is doing in selling National Forest land to a mining company to raze sacred Native American sites at Oak Flat, Arizona (apache-stronghold.com). This would make the Buddha Shakyamuni, Scythian "Sage of the Shakyas," a blue eyed, black haired, fair golden skinned Central Asian in the Middle Country between Asia and Europe in what is now referred to as the Stans.

2023 Badakhshan Earthquake

On March 21, 2023, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan [ancient "Shakya Land," Kapilavastu, Gandhara, Sakastan, Central Asia], with an intermediate depth of approximately 187 km (116 mi) [1].

The epicenter of the earthquake was 40 km (25 miles) south-southeast of Jurm [1].

Tectonic setting

The Himalayas [as this area of the Hindu Kush is part of the Himalayan range], partially formed by the collision of tectonic plates, are prone to devastating earthquakes.

Afghanistan is situated near the southern extent of the Eurasian Plate [2] in Central Asia next to the subcontinent.

Most of these earthquakes are associated with reverse, thrust, or strike-slip faulting. Large earthquakes with magnitudes of up to 7.5 have occurred in the region with an average recurrence interval of 15 years.

Kapilavastu: Bamiyan, Kabul, Mes Aynak (Shakya Land)

These earthquakes correspond to reverse faulting at a depth of 170 to 280 km (110 to 170 miles) [3]. These earthquakes, rather than occurring at a plate boundary, are sourced from within the Indian Plate as it dives beneath the Hindu Kush [mountains].

As the tectonic slab of the Indian Plate descends at a near-vertical angle into the mantle, it stretches and begins to "tear," eventually leading to a slab detachment [4]. This action results in stress accommodation along faults that produces earthquakes when ruptured.

Smaller shallow focus earthquakes are also observed in the region, particularly associated with north–south trending zones of right lateral strike-slip, such as the Chaman Fault, with an increasing degree of shortening to the north, together accommodating the highly oblique convergence between the Indian and the Eurasian Plates [5].

Earthquake

The United States Geological Survey reported a magnitude of Mww 6.5 [1], while the Pakistan Meteorological Department said the earthquake had a magnitude of 6.8 [6].

The earthquake was initially reported inaccurately as Mw 7.7 [7]. Shaking was felt over an area 1,000 km (620 miles) wide by approximately 285 million people in Pakistan, India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan, according to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre [8].

Impact

Afghanistan

At least 10 people were killed [9], 80 others were injured [10], and more than 665 houses were destroyed in nine provinces of Afghanistan [11, 12]. Two people died, 25 others were injured, and 22 houses collapsed in Laghman Province [13, 14, 15].

In Takhar Province, 20 buildings collapsed, one person died, and five others were injured [16, 17]. In Panjshir Province, three buildings were seriously damaged, and three people were injured [17].

In Badakhshan Province, where the epicenter of the earthquake was located, one person was injured, 70 buildings were destroyed, and 50 were damaged [18, 19].

In Kabul Province [ancient Kapil'vastu], one person died and one house was destroyed [11]. Five houses collapsed in Nangarhar Province [15].

Pakistan

Tremors were felt in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Quetta, and Peshawar [20]. In Swat District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a teenager was killed from a collapsing wall and a police station was damaged [8, 21].

Two people also died due to a wall collapse in the district [22], while a falling wall killed another child [23]. In Swat District, there were power outages, severe damage, and 250 injuries. More