Earthquake of 6.3 magnitude hits Tajikistan; tremors felt in Delhi NCR, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir

NEW DELHI: A high intensity earthquake of magnitude 6.3 struck Tajikistan at 10:31pm, sending tremors in Delhi-NCR and several other parts of north India on Friday night.
Tremors were also felt across Pakistan including the capital, Islamabad, and northwestern Peshawar, and even as far as the eastern city of Lahore, which borders India.

The quake struck at the depth of 91.6 km and its epicentre was located 35 km west of Murghab town in Tajikistan.

Millions of people in the northern parts of India and Pakistan were awoken by a very noticeable earthquake on Friday evening (February 12, 2021).
The earthquakes epicenter was actually in nearby Tajikistan, yet this relatively deep earthquake at an intermediate 86 km below the surface caused it to be felt as far as New Delhi in India, over 1100 km away, and even further than Bhopal in Central India, some 1600 km away.
Both the Indian and Pakistani sides of Kashmir got shaken significantly, with a huge number of comments coming in to VolcanoDiscovery describing the shaking and panic of people fleeing outdoors. People from Indian cities such as Amritsar, Bathinda, Chandigarh, Gujrat, Gurdaspur, Jaipur, Jammu, Noida, Sopore and Srinagar all reported shaking. Near the city of Mirpur 550 km away from the epicenter, one report wrote "The ground shook side to side then up and down. I ran downstairs with my heart pumping. I took my mother and grandma outside. Very scary. May God have mercy."

Pakistan also felt major shaking with reports coming in from Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Hafizabad, Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar and Rawalpindi. A report from Lahore wrote "The bed shook violently for at least 10 seconds. At first, I just freaked out and could not figure out the reason for the shaking but became sure that it was an earthquake after my mother came running out of her room, awakened from sleep." A family from Faisalabad even sent in their photo waiting outdoors in the open for possible aftershocks.

Many locations reported objects falling from shelves, beds shaking for as much as 15 seconds, lamps and fans swaying, creaking walls, agitated animals, birds flying from trees or chirping, sounds like thunder, and even people shouting "earthquake". Many thousands ran outdoors, and this could have been in the hundreds of thousands, as the quake was also felt in countries that have poor connectivity to report, with a handful of reports of shaking from Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan. Weak shaking was also felt in Dushanbe and Khujand in Tajikistan, and moderate shaking was felt in Osh, Kyrgyzstan's second largest city 280 km from the epicenter. While we received no reports from China, the proximity of Xinjiang, the Uygur autonomous region in China relatively close to the epicenter, means that it was almost certainly felt there as well. No immediate aftershocks were reported by seismological agencies in few hours after the quake.
Update Fri, 12 Feb 2021, 17:32.

USGS now posts the quake as magnitude 5.9, a bit weaker than the originally reported magnitude 6. So far, we have no clear picture whether there is significant damage and there are no reports yet.
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.

An earthquake of magnitude 6.0 occurred late at night on Friday 12 February 2021 at 10:01 pm local time near Murghab, Gorno-Badakhshan, Tajikistan, as reported by the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ).
According to preliminary data, the quake was located at an intermediate depth of 86 km. The exact magnitude, epicenter, and depth of the quake might be revised within the next few hours or minutes as seismologists review data and refine their calculations, or as other agencies issue their report.
Our monitoring service identified a second report from the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) which listed the quake at magnitude 6.1.

Based on the preliminary seismic data, the quake was probably felt by many people in the area of the epicenter. It should not have caused significant damage, other than objects falling from shelves, broken windows, etc.
In Murghab (pop. 10,800) located 29 km from the epicenter, the quake should have been felt as light shaking.
VolcanoDiscovery will automatically update magnitude and depth if these change and follow up if other significant news about the quake become available. If you’re in the area, please send us your experience through our reporting mechanism, either online or via our mobile app. This will help us provide more first-hand updates to anyone around the globe who wants to know more about this quake.