Why did the Kashmir earthquake happen?

The 2005 Kashmir earthquake was caused by a sudden influx of seismic stress at the highly active earthquake hot spot between the Earth's Indian plate and Eurasian plate near the Himalayan mountains. The seismic stress occurred from repetitive collisions between the two plates, which caused a fault zone to appear.

The spontaneous release of seismic stress caused a 47-mile fracture through the center of Muzaffarabad, a record for earthquake activity in the Himalayan area. Rather than being the longest surface fracture in the area's history, it was the first surface fracture and remains the only one to have occurred there as of 2014.