The 1948 Ashgabat earthquake (Turkmen: 1948 Ашгабат ыер титремеси; 1948 Aşgabat yer titremesi; Russian: Ашхабадское землетрясение 1948 года; Ashkhabadskoye zemletryasenie 1948 goda) occurred on 6 October with a surface wave magnitude of 7.3 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). The shock occurred in Turkmenistan near Ashgabat. Due to censorship by the national (Turkmen) government, the event was not widely reported in the USSR's media. Historians tend to agree that the ban on reporting the extent of the casualties and damage did not allow the central Soviet government to allocate enough financial resources to adequately respond.