Four large earthquakes measuring Mww 6.3 each and their aftershocks affected Herat Province in western Afghanistan in early October 2023.

The earthquakes struck Afghanistan during an ongoing humanitarian crisis following the Taliban takeover in 2021, and existing aid groups were experiencing a lack of funds prior to the disaster.

Some aid agencies including UNICEF and the Red Cross appealed for donations in response to the earthquakes.

[4] The North Afghan Platform has remained relatively tectonically stable since the Variscan Orogeny during the Late Palaeozoic, when it became part of Eurasia.

[5] The seismicity of Afghanistan is attributed to the complex and active tectonic interactions between the Arabian, Eurasian, and Indian plates.

The seismologists added that the ground deformation was diffuse and inferred the earthquakes were associated with a blind thrust fault.

[15] Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology released two possible finite fault models for the second large earthquake.

The focal depth is inferred to be 5.8 km (3.6 mi); the zone of maximum slip is located east of the hypocenter, where it peaked at 2.8 m (9 ft 2 in).

[32] An official representing the National Disaster Management Authority said in several villages with populations of 1,000, only 100 out of an estimated 300 houses remained intact.

[39] Hundreds of people remained trapped beneath collapsed ruins, said a government official on 8 October.

[38] In Iran's Razavi Khorasan province, one person in Torbat-e Jam was injured[41] and minor damage to houses occurred in Taybad.

[44] Many people were living outdoors because of damage to homes from the first two quakes when the third earthquake struck in the early morning.

[45] The governor's office in Herat said several neighbouring districts that were badly affected by previous earthquakes had experienced "huge losses" following the 11 October shock.

[48] In Herat, damage was limited; bricks from the Akhtaruddin Castle collapsed and parts of its walls fractured.

[50] The earthquake on 15 October caused four deaths,[51] 160 injuries[52] and additional damage in the eastern districts of Herat city.

[57] The earthquakes occurred at a time when the region was struggling to cope with multiple crises such as displacement caused by decades of war, a years-long drought, and a huge reduction in foreign aid since the Taliban takeover in 2021.

[39] The World Health Organization dispatched 12 ambulances to Zinda Jan District to transport casualties to hospitals.

Five medical tents designed to assist 80 patients were established by Doctors Without Borders at Herat Regional Hospital.

[60] The national director of World Vision Afghanistan said on 9 October that "the situation is worse than we imagined", adding that people were still attempting to rescue those trapped under debris with their hands.

[63] Athlete Rashid Khan pledged his Cricket World Cup fees to help victims of the earthquake and announced that a fundraising campaign would be set up.

[65] The Taliban governor's office in Kandahar said 10 teams including 37 doctors and nurses were sent to Herat Province.

[66] Following the 15 October earthquake, three damage assessment teams were dispatched by Iran to Razavi and South Khorasan provinces.

[73] In January 2024, Fran Equiza, the UNICEF representative in Afghanistan, said that almost 100,000 children in the affected areas remained in urgent need of humanitarian aid.

[75] Afghanistan was also entering the winter season while thousands of people remained homeless amidst cold temperatures.

[77] Strong winds occurred across the country beginning on 12 October, damaging tents and injuring additional people.

[78] Abdul Ghani Baradar, Afghanistan's Deputy Prime Minister of Economic Affairs, visited the affected area and met locals, officials and health workers.

[81] However, Luo Dapeng, the representative of the World Health Organization in Afghanistan, estimated that between 200,000 to 300,000 people were still living in tents following the earthquake.

[66] Nevertheless, the international response to the earthquake was seen as slow due to many countries' reluctance to interact with the Taliban-led government and the start of the 2023 Israel-Hamas War, which began hours before the first mainshock happened on 7 October.