Swarm Of Earthquakes Strikes Chong-Alay Region

It didn’t make headlines internationally, but the Chong-Alay region that I’ve been doing so much work with has in the past week has experienced a swarm of 11 earthquakes above 4.5 magnitude (out of 16 total recorded).  The largest of these, around 5.9 magnitude according to USGS (initially reported as 7.0 by local authorities, now said to be 6.5) on May 3rd, was strong enough to evacuate some buildings in Osh, and several of the aftershocks have been up to 5.8 in magnitude.  Technically, they were centered in Tajikistan, but their heaviest impact has been felt here. They may not have made international headlines or even local headlines, but they have been devastating nonetheless.  I want to share with you a bit of what I’ve been able to learn about the situation. Continue reading “Swarm Of Earthquakes Strikes Chong-Alay Region”

Mile 7: Suddenly, There’s Work

People told me when I came here that you’ll feel like nothing is happening, then at about 6 months, you’ll hit a massive wave of work and you’ll also get kind of depressed at the same time. It’s called the six-month-slump, and it’s kind of like the collegiate sophomore slump. You’ve been here long enough to miss some things about home, like friends and food, and suddenly you’ve got work. Luckily for me, I’ve got a lot of really exciting work to look forward to, and was kept on my feet by a series of literal disasters in the past few weeks.

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Earthquake!

tl;dr: There was an earthquake a series of earthquakes and aftershocks in Osh! I’m fine, no damage.

So, you probably heard about the massive 7.5 earthquake a few weeks ago in Afghanistan that also triggered some building evacuations here in Osh. What you almost definitely DIDN’T hear about is the 5.9 earthquake that hit Osh (literally, Osh was the nearest city) late Tuesday night, the 4.8 magnitude aftershock ten minutes later, the 4.1 aftershock three hours later, or the 4.9 magnitude aftershock three days later (which ironically happened during an earthquake preparedness training for volunteers).

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