earthquake essay of nepal

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Why is an earthquake dangerous?
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In this aerial photo, structures are damaged and destroyed October 15, 2005 in Balakot, Pakistan. It is estimated that 90% of the city of Balakot was leveled by the earthquake. The death toll in the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck northern Pakistan on October 8, 2005 is believed to be 38,000 with at least 1,300 more dead in Indian Kashmir. SEE CONTENT NOTES.

Nepal earthquake of 2015

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Academia - Consequence of Nepal Earthquake 2015 and Effects in Bangladesh
Nature - Strong ground motion data of the 2015 Gorkha Nepal earthquake sequence in the Kathmandu Valley
The Geological Society - 2015 Nepal Earthquake
Stanford University - 2015 Nepal earthquake offers clues about hazards
United Nations - The humanitarian response to the 2015 Nepal earthquake
National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Aftershock analysis of the 2015 Gorkha-Dolakha (Central Nepal) earthquake doublet
Frontiers - The 2015 Gorkha Nepal earthquake: insights from earthquake damage survey

Nepal earthquake of 2015 , severe earthquake that struck near the city of Kathmandu in central Nepal on April 25, 2015. About 9,000 people were killed, many thousands more were injured, and more than 600,000 structures in Kathmandu and other nearby towns were either damaged or destroyed. The earthquake was felt throughout central and eastern Nepal, much of the Ganges River plain in northern India , and northwestern Bangladesh , as well as in the southern parts of the Plateau of Tibet and western Bhutan .

The initial shock, which registered a moment magnitude of 7.8, struck shortly before noon local time (about 06:11 am Greenwich Mean Time ). Its epicentre was about 21 miles (34 km) east-southeast of Lamjung and 48 miles (77 km) northwest of Kathmandu, and its focus was 9.3 miles (about 15 km) underground. Two large aftershocks , with magnitudes 6.6 and 6.7, shook the region within one day of the main quake, and several dozen smaller aftershocks occurred in the region during the succeeding days. On May 12 a magnitude-7.3 aftershock struck some 76 km (47 miles) east-northeast of Kathmandu, killing more than 100 people and injuring nearly 1,900.

Warm water fuels Hurricane Katrina. This image depicts a 3-day average of actual dea surface temperatures for the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean, from August 25-27, 2005.

The earthquake and its aftershocks were the result of thrust faulting (i.e., compression-driven fracturing) in the Indus-Yarlung suture zone, a thin east-west region spanning roughly the length of the Himalayan ranges. The earthquake relieved compressional pressure between the Eurasian tectonic plate and the Indian section of the Indo-Australian Plate, which subducts (underthrusts) the Eurasian Plate. Subduction in the Himalayas occurs at an average rate of 1.6–2 inches (4–5 cm) annually. Such tectonic activity adds more than 0.4 inch (1 cm) to the height of the Himalayan mountains every year.

The Himalayan region is one of the most seismically active in the world, but large earthquakes have occurred there infrequently. Before the 2015 temblor, the most recent large earthquake (that is, magnitude 6.0 or above) took place in 1988. That magnitude-6.9 event resulted in the deaths of 1,500 people. A magnitude-8.0 earthquake in 1934, however, killed approximately 10,600 people.

Initial reports of casualties following the early-morning earthquake put the death toll in the hundreds, but, as the day wore on, reports had the total number of fatalities surpassing 1,000 and nearing 1,900 by the end of the day. Within two weeks after the main quake occurred, rescue teams had reached all the remote villages in the earthquake zone, and a more-accurate picture of the earthquake’s human cost emerged. The deaths of approximately 9,000 people (which included fatalities in nearby parts of India, China , and Bangladesh) were confirmed, with nearly 16,800 injured and some 2.8 million people displaced by the earthquake. One United Nations (UN) report mentioned that more than eight million people (more than one-fourth of Nepal’s population) were affected by the event and its aftermath.

The earthquake produced landslides that devastated rural villages and some of the most densely populated parts of the city of Kathmandu. Initial damage estimates ranged from $5 billion to $10 billion. Inside Kathmandu, bricks and other debris from collapsed and partially collapsed buildings, which included parts of the famous Taleju Temple and the entire nine-story Dharahara Tower, filled the streets. The earthquake also triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest that killed at least 19 climbers and stranded hundreds more at Everest Base Camp and at camps higher up the mountain. Those at the high camps were soon airlifted to Base Camp, and all the climbers either hiked off the mountain or were flown out to other locations.

Immediately after the quake, the Nepalese government declared a state of emergency, and soon nearly the entire Nepalese army was assisting in rescue and recovery work. Nepal also called on the international community for aid. The UN quickly established the “Nepal Earthquake 2015 Flash Appeal” fund, whose goal was to raise an estimated $415 million for Nepal’s earthquake relief. By some two weeks after the earthquake, more than $330 million had been either provided directly or pledged.

India, China, and several other countries quickly responded by sending in aid and rescue teams. The delivery of relief services to the people in need during the first few days after the earthquake occurred, however, was complicated by the remoteness of many villages from the existing transportation network, congestion at Kathmandu’s international airport, and a shortage of heavy trucks, helicopters, and other vehicles capable of transporting supplies. In addition, earthquake debris—along with “tent cities” erected in streets and other open areas by Kathmandu residents who feared going back to their homes—contributed to making many of the city’s streets virtually impassable, hampering efforts by rescuers to reach people still trapped in the rubble. The debris was gradually cleared.

Nepal Earthquake 2015: A case study

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Introduction to the special issue on the 25 April 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha(Nepal) earthquake

On April 25, 2015, a moment magnitude (M w ) 7.8 earthquake struck central Nepal, breaking a section of the broader Himalayan Front that had been largely quiescent in moderate-to-large earthquakes for much of the modern seismological era. Ground shaking associated with the event resulted in a broad distribution of triggered avalanches and landslides. The ensuing aftershock sequence was punctuated by a Mw 7.3 event 17 days after the mainshock. The combined effects of these earthquakes and secondary hazards have led to the Gorkha earthquake becoming the worst natural disaster in Nepal since the 1934 Nepal-Bihar earthquake, causing close to 9000 deaths and severely injuring over 21,000 people ( OCHA, 2015 ).

Despite the devastating effects of this earthquake, the convergent margin that hosted it is thought to be capable of much larger ruptures—perhaps as large as Mw 9 ( Feldl and Bilham, 2006 ). The 2015 Gorkha rupture lies just to the west of the 1934 M 8.0–8.4 event ( Sapkota et al., 2013; Bollinger et al., 2014 ). Unlike the 1934 event, which has been documented in paleoseismic trenches along the Himalayan Front (e.g., Sapkota et al., 2013 ), and other large ruptures along the arc (e.g., Lavé et al., 2005; Kumar et al., 2006 ), the 2015 event did not rupture to the surface (e.g., Galetzka et al., 2015 ). As a result, some researchers have suggested that the Gorkha earthquake was not as large, or as damaging, as might have been expected based on our (albeit limited) understanding of historic earthquakes, seismic hazard and risk (e.g., Bilham, 2015; Hough, 2015 ).

Important questions surrounding the earthquake and its regional setting thus arise. What were the detailed characteristics of the rupture and the aftershock sequence, and what is the relationship between mainshock slip and subsequent seismicity? Why did this event not rupture to the surface? Was damage less than should have been expected; and if so, why? What role did path effects, such as basin amplification, play? Do details of the earthquake sequence allow us to better understand regional seismotectonics, and in turn, future risk? Discussion of these and other issues has been ongoing since the earthquake; a large body of literature already exists that characterizes details of the earthquake sequence and its effects. This special issue attempts to gather a wide variety of detailed studies that wholly characterize this event to a degree that has not yet been possible. The studies herein provide an improved understanding of the Gorkha earthquake, its impact on the region, and its place in the broader seismotectonic history of the Himalayan Front.

Citation Information

Publication Year	2016
Title	Introduction to the special issue on the 25 April 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha(Nepal) earthquake
DOI
Authors	Gavin P. Hayes, Richard W. Briggs
Publication Type	Article
Publication Subtype	Journal Article
Series Title	Tectonophysics
Index ID
Record Source
USGS Organization	Geologic Hazards Science Center

Major earthquake hits Nepal

Alexandra Witze

Nature ( 2015 ) Cite this article

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Scientists have long warned that mounting seismic stress put region near Kathmandu at risk for a severe tremor.

A magnitude-7.8 earthquake hit just 80 kilometres northwest of Nepal's capital Kathmandu on 25 April, destroying buildings and devastating much of the city. The ground shook well beyond Nepal’s borders, into Tibet and northern India, in one of the worst natural disasters to strike the Himalayas in years; thousands of people are feared dead. Nature looks at the geological and social circumstances that combined to make the Nepal quake so deadly.

Why did the quake happen?

The ground ruptured along one of the planet’s biggest geological collision zones, where the crustal plate that carries India slams into and dives beneath the crust of central Asia at a rate of 4–5 centimetres a year. That smash-up raises the Himalayas to their great height and makes the region one of the most seismically dangerous in the world. Geological stress builds up along the Himalayas and releases itself periodically in earthquakes.

The 25 April quake was relatively shallow — just 15 kilometres deep, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). Preliminary data suggest that the Himalayan fault broke a chunk of crust some 150–200 kilometres long, says Susan Hough, a seismologist at the USGS offices in Pasadena, California, who has worked in Nepal.

Were scientists expecting it?

To a large extent, yes. Seismologists including Roger Bilham of the University of Colorado Boulder, and Jean-Philippe Avouac of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, have long warned that crustal stresses are building up in Nepal 1 , 2 . “This is not an oddball earthquake,” says Hough.

Even so, the 25 April earthquake was a little smaller and farther east than what some had expected. It occurred close to the site of a magnitude-8.1 earthquake in 1934 that killed more than 10,000 people and sent buildings in northern India sinking more than a metre deep into the ground.

How bad is the damage?

Brick temples in Kathmandu crumbled, including the iconic Dharahara tower. Other buildings slumped sideways or pancaked to the ground. Damage assessments are underway, but Hough says that she was relatively heartened to see buildings standing in the background of photographs that focused on collapsed temples.

Officials in Nepal estimate that at least 3,700 people are dead as of 27 April, and that number is likely to rise in the days to come. On Mount Everest, the earthquake triggered an avalanche that swept into base camp. At least 18 people are thought to have been killed on the mountain.

Why weren’t people more prepared?

Nepal has a small but experienced community of earthquake professionals, and a national network of seismic and geodetic monitoring stations. Several organizations that focus on risk reduction have been working actively in Kathmandu in recent years. On 12 April, two of them — the National Society for Earthquake Technology-Nepal in Sainbu and GeoHazards International of Menlo Park, California — updated their earthquake scenarios for the Kathmandu Valley. That long-running project envisioned a quake similar to the 1934 disaster and laid out what to do in the aftermath.

In Kathmandu, older buildings were often constructed from unreinforced masonry, which cannot withstand the ground shaking from a quake so nearby. The area has also become more urban, and many newer buildings are built in dense neighbourhoods without structural reinforcements such as steel rebar.

“It’s not a problem of ignorance, it’s a problem of resources,” Hough says. “People are building houses to live in with the resources that they have. They can’t afford rebar and engineering.”

What happens next?

Assuming that this earthquake is the largest event in this seismic episode, Nepal can expect more than 30 aftershocks greater than magnitude 5 over the next month. One magnitude-6.6 aftershock has already hit.

Change history

27 april 2015.

This story was updated on 27 April with the latest death-toll figures.

Bilham, R. Ann. Geophys. 47 , 839-858 (2004).

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Avouac, J.-P. et al. C. R. Acad. Sci. IIA 333 , 513-529 (2001).

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Witze, A. Major earthquake hits Nepal. Nature (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature.2015.17413

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Published : 26 April 2015

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/nature.2015.17413

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April 28, 2015

How The Deadly Nepal Earthquake Happened [Infographic]

Saturday's terrible earthquake was the latest result of an ongoing collision of giant pieces of our planet, a slow-moving disaster that started about 50 million years ago.

By Josh Fischman

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Between 55 million and 40 million years ago, the northern edge of what is now India began to slam into the giant slab of Earth's crust that today carries Nepal and Tibet. This ancient collision had a terrible after-effect this past Saturday: The deadly earthquake, centered in Nepal, which had an estimated death toll of nearly 4,000 people as of Monday evening. India bulled its way under Nepal those many millions of years ago, shoving the northern land skyward. That move began to create the towering Himalaya, including Mt. Everest. The collision is still going on, as India moves several centimeters north each year, and this has created an unstable fissure in the planet's crust, known as the Himalayan frontal thrust fault. This boundary zone, shown below, continues to release enormous earthquakes. Saturday's magnitude 7.8 disaster appears to overlap a segment that released a 8.1 magnitude quake in 1934, according to Susan Hough, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena, California. That quake killed an estimated 10,700 people . Here are illustrations that show, first, how the initial collision occured, then how the thrust fault is continuing to fracture the crust in the area, and finally where the frontal thrust fault lies in relation to other cracks in this very quake-prone zone. HIMALAYAS WERE FORMED when the Indian lithospheric plate drifted northward and collided with the Eurasian plate. The collision is shown here in simplified, vertically exaggerated diagrams. Some 60 million years ago the oceanic lithosphere at the leading edge of the Indian plate was being subducted under southern Tibet (1). Magma rising above the Indian plate erupted from volcanoes and formed granite intrusions. Sediments and oceanic crust scraped off the descending plate piled up in an accretionary wedge, which created a forearc basin that trapped sediments eroded from Tibet. Sometime between 55 and 40 million years ago the two landmasses collided (2). Presumably the Indian crust was too buoyant to plunge far under Tibet; as a result a new fault, the Main Central Thrust, broke through the Indian crust. Subsequently motion continued along the fault (3). A slice of Indian crust, topped by Paleozoic and Mesozoic sediments that had been deposited on the continental shelf, was thrust up onto the oncoming subcontinent. The accretionary wedge and the forearc sediments were thrust northward onto Tibet. (Much of this material has since been eroded away.) About 20 to 10 million years ago the Main Central Thrust became inactive. Since then India has slid northward along a second fault, the Main Boundary Fault (4). A second slice of crust has been thrust up onto the subcontinent, lifting up the first slice. The two uplifted slices make up the bulk of the Himalayas; many of the peaks are capped by Paleozoic sediments. The Indian plate bends slightly under the weight of the mountains, and the resulting trough, now filled with sediments, can be detected under the Ganges plain. [Originally produced for " The Structure of Mountain Ranges ," by Peter Molnar, in Scientific American, July 1986; Illustration by Ian Worpole] SHINGLING EFFECTS occur when tectonic plates collide and create thrust faults. Such shingling—the result of the India-Asia plate collision—has occurred in the Himalaya. Faults of a second type are found near the crest of the Himalaya, dipping northward below the Tibetan Plateau. Constituting what is known as the South Tibetan fault system, these faults share geometric similarities with the thrust faults, but rocks slip along this system in the opposite direction. This fault system may also mark the top of the fluid lower crustal channel below Tibet. New evidence suggests that northward slip along the South Tibetan fault system and simultaneous southward slip along the southern faults permit the southward extrusion of this channel toward the Himalayan range front. (Tan regions are moving north. Purple and gray regions are moving south.) [Originally produced for " Climate and the Evolution of Mountains ," By Kip Hodges, in Scientific American, August 2006; Graphic by Jen Christiansen; Source: “Southward Extrusion of Tibetan Crust and its Effect on Himalayan Tectonics," By K. V. Hodges, J. M. Hurtado and K. X. Whipple, in Tectonics, VOL . 20, NO. 6 , pages 799–809; 2001]. PRINCIPAL TECTONIC FEATURES that are thought to be associated with continuing northward push of the India plate againstthe Eurasia plate have been plotted by the authors, partly on the basis of the analysis of ERTS photographs and partly on the basis of studies of major earthquakes (colored dots), which reveal how the crust has moved along faults. The straight lines without arrowheads through dots indicate thrust faults. The double-headed arrows indicate normal faults. The pairs of anti parallel arrows indicate movement along strikeslip faults. The areas in color appear to be zones of recent uplift resulting from crustal shortening. The overall impression is that the large Eurasian land mass that lies to the west of 70 degrees east longitude has remained more or less undeformed as China bas been pushed to east. [Originally produced for " The Collision between India and Eurasia, " By Peter Molnar and Paul Tapponnier, Scientific American, April 1977; Graphic by Andrew Tomko].

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Earthquake in Western Nepal Kills More Than 150

Thousands of families were left under the open sky as rescuers searched for survivors in the mountainous villages where the earthquake struck.

Several people stand near rubble next to some badly damaged buildings.

By Bhadra Sharma

Reporting from Kathmandu, Nepal

The death toll from a powerful midnight earthquake that struck western Nepal climbed to more than 150 people on Saturday, as the authorities and aid organizations rushed to provide relief for thousands of families stranded under the open sky and fearful of aftershocks.

Rescuers worked through the day to push through roads blocked by landslides and debris to reach the mountainous villages of Karnali Province where the earthquake struck. Officials cautioned that the death toll was likely to rise as communication was restored with areas that had been cut off.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported the magnitude as 5.6 . Nepal’s National Earthquake Monitoring and Research Center reported the magnitude at 6.4, with several small aftershocks spread over the following hours. It is not uncommon for estimates of an earthquake’s magnitude to differ or for them to be subsequently revised.

The earthquake hit near midnight, when people were sleeping. Tremors were also felt in India’s capital, New Delhi, hundreds of miles west.

After the initial quake, families in villages spent much of the night out under the open sky, fearing aftershocks. With about 5,000 houses destroyed or damaged, according to initial estimates made by disaster management authorities, entire villages prepared for another night outside.

“There was not a single house standing tall. Every house was damaged. Only dirt flying under the sky,” said Tapendra Rokaya, 29, who was visiting family in a village in the Jajarkot district for a Hindu festival. “No one is staying indoors due to fears of aftershocks. Everyone is either under a tent or open in the sky.”

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Home / Essay Samples / Science / Earthquake / Nepal’s Earthquake Aftermath: Impacts and Governmental Responses

Nepal's Earthquake Aftermath: Impacts and Governmental Responses

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