![]() ![]() 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. Initial damage estimates ranged from $5 billion to $10 billion. The earthquake produced landslides that devastated rural villages and some of the most densely populated parts of the city of Kathmandu. 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 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. 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. 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. A magnitude-8.0 earthquake in 1934, however, killed approximately 10,600 people. That magnitude-6.9 event resulted in the deaths of 1,500 people. Before the 2015 temblor, the most recent large earthquake (that is, magnitude 6.0 or above) took place in 1988. The Himalayan region is one of the most seismically active in the world, but large earthquakes have occurred there infrequently. Such tectonic activity adds more than 0.4 inch (1 cm) to the height of the Himalayan mountains every year. ![]() Subduction in the Himalayas occurs at an average rate of 1.6–2 inches (4–5 cm) annually. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. The initial shock, which registered a moment magnitude of 7.8, struck shortly before noon local time (about 06:11 am Greenwich Mean Time). SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!.Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century. ![]()
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