Nepal Earthquake: Tectonics Plate, Epicenter, Deaths And History

  1. Nepal Earthquake  

Nepal is a land-locked country. It shares boundaries between India and China. The Indian and Eurasian plates are the main reason behind earthquakes in Nepal. During the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, many historical sites got damaged. Many people were homeless, people started to live on open ground under the tent.

Nepal is in the red zone of earthquakes, so the government should take responsibility and be aware the people what to do during, after, and before the earthquake that can reduce the death rate. Also, the Nepal government should be more focused on earthquake-resistant building construction. Nepal should have its own building code achieved from various tests not by taking refrences from other countries’ building codes.

Nepal Earthquake was caused by the tectonic movement of the Indo subcontinent below the Eurasian plate.

The April 2015 Nepal earthquake is known as the Gorkha earthquake. This earthquake killed more than 9000 people and injured more than 23000. It occurred at 11:56 AM NST on 25th April, with a magnitude of 7.8Mw or 8.1Ms and a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent).

The epicenter of the mainshock was located in the east of the district of Lamjung, and the hypocenter of the mainshock was at a depth of nearly 8.2 km (5.1 mi). It was a bad natural disaster to affect Nepal after the 1934 Nepal-Bihar earthquake.

The earthquake triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest, killing at least 19 and making April 25, 2015, the deadliest day on the mountain in history. The earthquake triggered another huge avalanche in the Langtang valley where 250 people were reported missing.

Because of this earthquake, thousands of people were made homeless with whole villages flattened, across different districts of the country. Countries-old buildings were damaged at UNESCO world heritage sites in the Kathmandu valley, including some at the Kathmandu Durbar square, Patan Durbar square, the Changu Narayan Temple, and the Swayambhunath Stupa. Geophysicists and other experts had already warned for decades that Nepal was vulnerable to a deadly earthquake, many awareness programs were run in Nepal still Nepal faced the worst scene particularly due to its geology, urbanization, and architecture.

A major aftershock happened on 12 May 2015 at 12:51 Nepal Standard Time with a moment magnitude (Mw) of 7.3. The epicenter was located very close to the Chinese border between the capital of Kathmandu and Mt. Everest. In this aftershock, Nepal faced the deaths of more than 200 people and more than 2500 were injured by it.

  2. List of Earthquakes in Nepal