DUSHANBE, June 15, 2014, Asia-Plus – A moderate intensity earthquake measuring 4.0 on the MSK scale jolted the Tajik capital Saturday morning (June 14), at 8:59 am, according to the Geophysics Service under the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan.

Centered 256 kilometers to the southeast of Dushanbe in Afghan territory, the tremor could be felt in some other regions of Tajikistan as well.

Thus, in Khorog, the capital of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO), the magnitude intensity was 2.0 on the MSL scale.

No damage or injured was reported, according to the Committee for Emergency Situations and Civil Defense (CES).

In the epicenter, the magnitude intensity was 5.0 on the MSK scale.  

The Medvedev–Sponheuer–Karnik scale, also known as the MSK or MSK-64, is a macroseismic intensity scale used to evaluate the severity of ground shaking on the basis of observed effects in an area of the earthquake occurrence.  The scale was first proposed by Sergei Medvedev (USSR), Wilhelm Sponheuer (East Germany), and Vit Karnik (Czechoslovakia) in 1964.  It was based on the experiences being available in the early 1960s from the application of the Modified Mercalli scale and the 1953 version of the Medvedev scale, known also as the GEOFIAN scale.

With minor modifications in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, the MSK scale became widely used in Europe and the USSR.  In early 1990s, the European Seismological Commission (ESC) used many of the principles formulated in the MSK in the development of the European Macroseismic Scale, which is now a de facto standard for evaluation of seismic intensity in European countries.  MSK-64 is still being used in India, Israel, Russia, and throughout the Commonwealth of Independent States.