Tajikistan Quake: Magnitude 6.1 Quake Hits Eastern Tajikistan

Tajikistan Earthquake: A U.S. Geological Survey shows the location of the magnitude 6.1 earthquake in Tajikistan on Jan. 23. (USGS)

A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck Eastern Tajikistan at 7:45 a.m. Monday, Jan. 24, local time (9:45 p.m. EST), the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

The quake, which was 55.7 miles deep, occurred 60 miles southwest of Karakul and 215 miles east of Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan.

An hour and a half after the earthquake, only 11 people had reported to the USGS that they felt the tremor. Yet the locations of the responses range from Tajikistan and Pakistan to India and China.

In 1998, the Central Asian country suffered from two earthquakes—a magnitude 6.6 earthquake in February that killed 2,323 people and a magnitude 6.6 quake in May that killed around 4,000.