Nepal Earthquake

15-03-2018

5 things to know about the Nepal earthquake

A powerful earthquake — the country's worst in 80 years — rocked mountainous Nepal on Saturday.On Sunday, Nepal was struck by a major aftershock.

Here are five things to know about the tragedy:

DEATH TOLL

An avalanche triggered by a massive earthquake swept across Everest Base Camp in Nepal on April 25, 2015. Afif and his team of four others from the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia survived. (Photo: Azim Afif via AP)

More than 3,300 deaths have been confirmed, and the death toll is expected to rise. At least 18 were killed and dozens more were injured on Mount Everest, where the quake launched an avalanche. Dozens if not hundreds remain trapped under mounds of rubble. The nation's capital of Katmandu was particularly hard hit.

Outside Nepal, a total of at least 61 died in India, Bangladesh, China's region of Tibet and Pakistan.

LOCATION

Emergency workers searched for survivors in the debris of Dharara Tower. The quake struck before noon local time about 50 miles northwest of Katmandu in an area that the U.S. Geological Survey calls one of the most seismically hazardous regions on Earth. It was felt as far away as Lahore, Pakistan; Lhasa, Tibet; and Dhaka, Bangladesh. Multiple aftershocks, including one registered at magnitude-6.7, followed.

SIZE

Nepalese walk past collapsed buildings at Lalitpur. 

The quake registered as a magnitude-7.8. Although on a major plate boundary with a history of large- to great-sized earthquakes, large earthquakes in this area are rare in the documented historical era, the U.S. Geological Survey reports. Over the past century, just four events of magnitude-6.0 or larger have occurred within about 150 miles of Saturday's earthquake.

USA TODAY

Nepal quake occurred at major plate boundary

An earthquake's power increases by 10 times with each increase in the number of its scale. That means Saturday's earthquake — the same magnitude as the one that hit San Francisco in 1906 — was 22 times more powerful than the 7.0 quake that devastated Haiti in 2010.

DAMAGE

A number of buildings collapsed in the center of the capital, the ancient Old Kathmandu, including centuries-old temples and towers. Among them was the Dharahara Tower, one of Katmandu's landmarks built by Nepal's royal rulers in the 1800s and a UNESCO-recognized historical monument. It was reduced to rubble and there were reports of people trapped underneath.

The Katmandu Valley is densely populated with nearly 2.5 million people, and the quality of buildings is often poor.

WHAT NOW?

People free a man from the rubble of a destroyed building in Katmandu on April 25. (Photo: Narendra Shrestha, European Pressphoto Agency)

It will be awhile before we know the full extent of the damage and the final death toll. At least 29 districts have been designated as crisis zones. Hospitals in the capital have been overwhelmed. About 90% of the 1,000 homes in the villages of Laprak and Barpak near the epicenter were destroyed.

The quake will likely put a huge strain on the resources of Nepal, a poor country best known for Everest. The nation is highly dependent on tourism. More avalanches are likely on Everest and it's unclear how those stranded on the mountain will be evacuated to safety.

Numerous countries around the world have pledged immediate aid and supplies. Humanitarian groups such as the Red Cross, Oxfam, CARE and Save the Children are working to provide shelter, clean water, sanitation and emergency food supplies. You can also help by contributing to one of a number of aid groups.

Spanish rescue workers use a dog to sniff out survivors buried in the debris from earthquake-damaged buildings on April 28 in Katmandu, Nepal. 

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Contributing: The Associated Press

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