July 18, 2004 Earthquake: Paktia Province, Afghanistan
A magnitude 5.2 earthquake struck Paktia Province, Afghanistan on July 18, 2004 at 08:31:45 UTC, 10 km below the surface. It killed 2 people.
Map
Where it struck, with the other significant earthquakes within 200 km. Circles are sized and colored by magnitude; select one for its page.
The earthquake
- Date
- July 18, 2004
- Time
- 08:31:45 UTC
- Place
- Paktia Province, Afghanistan
- Magnitude
- 5.2 (Mw)
- Magnitude scales
- Mw 5.2 · Ms 4.8 · mb 5.1
- Focal depth
- 10 km (6 mi)
- Tsunami
- None recorded
- Epicenter
- 33.426° N, 69.524° E
- Country
- Afghanistan
- Region
- Central Asia and Caucasus
- USGS record
- The USGS’s page for this earthquake
Mw: moment magnitude, based on the slip on the fault and the area that slipped. Ms: surface-wave magnitude. mb: body-wave (P-wave) magnitude. NCEI’s headline magnitude is the best of these for the earthquake.
The toll
- Deaths
- 2
- Injuries
- 40
- Damage
- Severe (about $5 to $25 million)
- Houses destroyed
- Many (101 to 1,000)
- Houses damaged
- Many (101 to 1,000)
Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.
What happened
The USGS’s account of the effects of this earthquake.
Two people killed, 40 injured and hundreds of houses destroyed in Paktia Province.
From the USGS event page for usp000d0du. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.
Magnitude estimates
The magnitudes the USGS catalog lists for this earthquake, by scale and by who computed them. NCEI’s own scales are in the table above.
| Mag. | Scale | Computed by | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.2 | Mwc, centroid moment | USGS National Earthquake Information Center | Preferred · Reviewed |
| 5.16 | Mw, moment | ISC-GEM global catalog | Final · ±0.1 |
| 5.2 | Mwc, centroid moment | Global CMT project | Preliminary |
What the record says
NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.
Two people killed, 40 injured and hundreds of houses destroyed in Paktia Province. (reference #1053)
Sources NCEI cites
The publications NCEI lists for this record. The numbers match the “reference #” notes in its account above.
- #1053 National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) (1971 to 2013). Preliminary Determination of Epicenters (PDE), a weekly and monthly publication, National Earthquake Information Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Golden, Colorado, 1971 to 2013.
Other significant earthquakes nearby
Within 200 km, the deadliest first.
- August 31, 2025, Kunar, Nangarhar, Afghanistan
- June 21, 2022, Paktika Province, Pakistan, Afghanistan
- February 19, 1842, Jalalabad, Afghanistan
- February 11, 1999, Lowgar, Vardak, Kabul, Afghanistan
- April 16, 2009, Nangarhar, Afghanistan
- April 24, 2013, Kama, Afghanistan
- September 4, 2022, Kunar, Laghman, Nangarhar, Afghanistan
- May 20, 1992, Peshawar, Kohat, Shakkar Khel, Pakistan
- June 1, 2001, Parvan, Hindu Kush, Afghanistan
- February 1, 1984, Khorog, Jalalabad, Pakistan, Afghanistan
- July 18, 2022, Hawst, Paktiya, Afghanistan
- July 6, 1505, Kabul, Afghanistan
- October 18, 1874, Afghanistan
More
Significant earthquakes of 2004The 2000sEvery quake the USGS located in 2004Recent earthquakes near hereThis day in weather history
Sources
Significant earthquakes from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-10-01. NCEI earthquake 5792. The written accounts and the magnitude estimates are from the USGS earthquake catalog, event usp000d0du, matched to this record by time, place and magnitude.