Afghanistan was shaken by a magnitude 4.1 earthquake on Friday, an event confirmed by the National Center for Seismology (NCS). The seismic event occurred at a depth of 178 kilometers, with its exact timing registered at 21:33:32 IST on November 21, 2025. The NCS provided the location details as 36.45 N latitude and 70.99 E longitude.
This tremor followed an earlier seismic incident on the same day, a magnitude 4.3 earthquake that was recorded at a depth of 170 kilometers. These repeated seismic occurrences are a significant concern for the region.
The country is still recovering from the devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck northern Afghanistan on November 4th. That powerful tremor resulted in at least 27 fatalities and injured 956 individuals. The earthquake’s shallow origin of just 28 kilometers caused extensive damage, including to historical landmarks.
Afghanistan’s geography places it in a zone of high seismic risk due to its position on active fault lines between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates. The Hindu Kush mountain range, a key feature of the country’s landscape, is a geologically active zone prone to frequent seismic events. This persistent vulnerability to natural disasters, including earthquakes, landslides, and floods, presents a formidable challenge for communities already facing hardship from conflict and underdevelopment.