APRIL 2015 NEPAL EARTHQUAKE
INTRODUCTION
The April 2015 Nepal earthquake (also known as
the Gorkha earthquake) killed 8,962 people and
injured 21,952 across the countries of Nepal, India,
China and Bangladesh. It occurred at 11:56 Nepal
Standard Time on Saturday 25 April 2015, with a
magnitude of Mw 7.8–7.9 or Ms 8.1and a
maximum Mercalli Intensity of X (Extreme). Its
epicenter was east of Gorkha District at Barpak,
Gorkha, roughly 85 km (53 mi) northwest of central Kathmandu, and its
hypocenter was at a depth of approximately 8.2 km (5.1 mi).[1] It was the
worst natural disaster to strike Nepal since the 1934 Nepal– India
earthquake.The ground motion recorded in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal,
was of low frequency, which, along with its occurrence at an hour when many
people in rural areas were working outdoors, decreased the loss of human
lives.[18]
The earthquake triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest, killing 22
people,[19] the deadliest incident on the mountain on record.[20] The
earthquake triggered another huge avalanche in the Langtang valley, where
250 people were reported missing.[21] Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese
were made homeless with entire villages flattened[21][22][23] across many
districts of the country. Centuries-old buildings were destroyed at UNESCO
World Heritage Sites in the Kathmandu Valley, including some at the
Kathmandu Durbar Square, the Patan Durbar Square, the Bhaktapur Durbar
Square, the Changu Narayan Temple, the Boudhanath stupa, and the
Swayambhunath stupa.
Geophysicists and other experts had warned for decades that Nepal was
vulnerable to a deadly earthquake, particularly because of its geology,
urbanization, and architecture.[24][25] Dharahara, also called Bhimsen Tower,
a nine-storey 61.88-metre (203.0 ft) tall tower, was destroyed. It was a part of
the architecture of Kathmandu recognized by UNESCO.
APRIL 2015 NEPAL EARTHQUAKE
EARTHQUAKE
The earthquake occurred on 25 April 2015 at
11:56 am NST (06:11:25 UTC) at a depth of
approximately 8.2 km (5.1 mi) (which is
considered shallow and therefore more
damaging than quakes that originate deeper in
the ground),[30] with its epicentre approximately
34 km (21 mi) southeast of Lamjung, Nepal,
lasting approximately 50 seconds.[31] The
earthquake was initially reported as Mww 7.5 by
the United States Geological Survey (USGS)
before it was quickly upgraded to Mww 7.8, while the Global Centroid Moment
Tensor (GCMT) reported a magnitude of Mw 7.9.[12][13] The China
Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) reported the earthquake's magnitude to
be 8.1 Ms .
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said two powerful quakes were
registered in Nepal at 06:11 UTC and 06:45 UTC. The first quake had its
epicenter was identified at a distance of 80 km to the northwest of
Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. Bharatpur was the nearest major city to the
main earthquake, 53 km (33 mi) as the crow flies from the epicenter. The
second earthquake was somewhat less powerful at 6.6 Mw . It occurred 65 km
(40 mi) east of Kathmandu and its seismic focus lay at a depth of 10 km (6.2 mi)
below the earth's surface. Over 38 aftershocks of magnitude 4.5 Mw or greater
occurred in the day following the initial earthquake, including one of 6.8 M
According to the USGS, the earthquake was caused by a sudden thrust, a short
sharp thrust that caught many unsuspected and dies to this thrust only, along
the major fault line where the Indian plate, carrying India, is slowly diving
underneath the Eurasian plate, carrying much of Europe and Asia.[30]
Kathmandu, situated on a block of crust approximately 120 km (74 miles) wide
and 60 km (37 miles) long, rapidly shifted 3 m (10 ft) to the south in a matter of
just 30 seconds.
APRIL 2015 NEPAL EARTHQUAKE
GEOLOGY
Nepal lies towards the southern limit of
the diffuse collisional boundary where
the Indian plate underthrusts the
Eurasian plate, [36][37] occupying the
central sector of the Himalayan arc,
nearly one-third of the 2,400 km (1,500
mi) long Himalayas. Geologically, the
Nepal Himalayas are subdivided into
five tectonic zones from north to south, east to west, and almost parallel to
subparallel.[38] These five distinct morpho-geotectonic zones are: (1) Terai
Plain; (2) Sub Himalaya (Shivalik Range); (3) Lesser Himalaya (Mahabharat
Range and mid valleys); (4) Higher Himalaya; and (5) Inner Himalaya (Tibetan
Tethys).[39] Each of these zones is clearly identified by its morphological,
geological, and tectonic features.
The convergence rate between the plates in central Nepal is about 45 mm (1.8
in) per year. The location, magnitude, and focal mechanism of the earthquake
suggest that it was caused by a slip along the Main Frontal Thrust.
The earthquake's effects were amplified in Kathmandu as it sits on the
Kathmandu Basin, which contains up to 600 m (2,000 ft) of sedimentary rocks,
representing the infilling of a lake.
Based on a study published in 2014, of the Main Frontal Thrust, on average a
great earthquake occurs every 750 ± 140 and 870 ± 350 years in the east Nepal
region. [42] A study from 2015 found a 700-year delay between earthquakes in
the region. The study also suggests that because of tectonic stress buildup, [43]
A the 1934 earthquake and the 2015 quake are connected, following a historic
earthquake pattern. 2016 study on historical great (M ≥ 8) earthquake pairs
and cycles found that associated great earthquakes are likely to occur in the
West China region through the 2020s.
APRIL 2015 NEPAL EARTHQUAKE
RESCUE AND RELIEF
About 90% of soldiers from the Nepalese Army were sent to the stricken areas
in the aftermath of the earthquake under country. Operation Sankat Mochan,
with volunteers mobilized from other parts of the [131] Rainfall and
aftershocks were factors complicating the rescue efforts, with potential
secondary effects like additional landslides and further building collapses being
concerns. Impassable roads and damaged communications infrastructure
posed substantial challenges to rescue efforts. Survivors were found up to a
week after the earthquake.
As of 1 May international aid agencies like Médecins Sans Frontières and the
[132] Red Cross were able to start medically evacuating the critically wounded
by helicopter from outlying areas, initially cut-off from the capital city,
Kathmandu, [22] and treating others in mobile and makeshift facilities. [136]
[137] There was concern about epidemics due to the shortage of clean water,
the makeshift nature of living conditions and the lack of toilets.
Emergency workers were able to identify four men who had been trapped in
rubble, and rescue them, using advanced heartbeat detection. The four men
were trapped in up to ten feet of rubble in the village of Chautara, north of
Kathmandu. An international team of rescuers from several countries using
FINDER devices found two sets of men under two different collapsed buildings.
Volunteers used crisis mapping to help plan emergency aid work. [140] Local
organization Kathmandu Living Labs helped coordinate local knowledge on the
ground and collaborated with international crisis mapping and humanitarian
organizations. Public volunteers from around the world participated in
crowdmapping and added details into online maps. Mapped from data input
from social media, satellite pictures [148] and drones Information was [140] of
passable roads, collapsed houses, stranded, shelterless and starving people,
who needed help, and from messages and contact details of people willing to
help. [149] On-site volunteers verified these mapping details wherever they
could to reduce errors. The technologies used by Kathmandu Living Labs were
built on top of existing open source solutions which allowed them to work in a
fast and cost effective manner.
APRIL 2015 NEPAL EARTHQUAKE
Digital mappers, through the Kathmandu Living Labs, were already charting the
densely populated Kathmandu Valley, and then focused on earthquake relief.
"They were doing an inventory in the poorer communities where they didn't
have a very good sense of the quality of buildings," says Cowan, whose
students helped add Kathmandu's buildings and roads to OpenStreetMap. First
responders, from Nepalese citizens to the Red Cross, the Nepal army and the
United Nations used this data. The Nepal earthquake crisis mapping utilized
experience gained and lessons learned about planning emergency aid work
from earthquakes in Haiti and Indonesia.
APRIL 2015 NEPAL EARTHQUAKE
REPAIR AND RECONSTRUCTION
UNESCO and the Ministry of Culture began strengthening damaged
monuments in danger of collapsing before the monsoon season. Subsequent
restoration of collapsed structures, including historic houses is planned.
Architectural drawings exist that provide plans for reconstruction. According to
UNESCO, more than 30 monuments in the
Kathmandu Valley collapsed in the quakes,
and another 120 incurred partial damage.
[160] Repair estimates are $160 million to
restore 1,000 damaged and destroyed
monasteries, temples, historic houses, and
shrines across the country. The destruction is
concentrated in the Kathmandu Valley.
UNESCO designated seven groups of multi-
ethnic monuments clustered in the valley as a single World Heritage Site,
including Swayambhu, the three squares namely Durbar square of Kathmandu,
Patan Durbar Square, and Bhaktapur Durbar Square, and the Hindu temples of
and Pashupatinath Changu Narayan. Out of them only three were damaged in
the quakes—three Durbar squares, the temple of Changu Narayan, and the
1655 temple in Sankhu. [161] Drones fly above cultural heritage sites to
provide 3D images of the damage to use for planning repairs.
Nepal Rural Housing Reconstruction Program :
[163] After an international donors conference held in Kathmandu on 25 June
2015 a multi donor trust fund of US$4.4 billion was established to aid the
reconstruction of affected housing in 14 districts of Nepal. [164] This covered
66 per cent of the country's total recovery and reconstruction needs of US$6.7
billion. [163] Implementation of the Program consisted of five phases i.e.
Survey, Identification and Validation, Enrollment, Reconstruction and
Completion. [165] The data collection for the program was done digitally using
tablets and resulted in collection of over 10 TB of data. released to the public
by the [166] The data was openly National Planning Commission and is
available for download on their website.
APRIL 2015 NEPAL EARTHQUAKE
MEASURES TO PREVENT AND MITIGATE DISASTERS
Prevention and mitigation of disasters is an important part of the process of
management of disasters. Some of the measures are:
Critical Infrastructure Safety: Regular checks should be conducted on
critical infrastructure such as roads, dams, bridges, and power stations
to ensure they meet safety standards and are fortified if necessary.
Environmentally Sustainable Development: Environmental
considerations and developmental efforts should go hand in hand to
ensure sustainability.
Climate Change Adaptation: The challenges posed by climate change,
including the increased frequency and intensity of natural disasters,
should be addressed through strategies that focus on adaptation and
risk reduction.
Risk Assessment and Vulnerability Mapping: Using tools like Geographic
Information System (GIS), mapping and vulnerability analysis should be
conducted to identify high-risk areas and develop strategies to address
them.
Urban Planning and Development: Preventing unplanned urbanization
and focusing on maintaining natural drainage systems can help reduce
the impact of disasters in urban areas.
By implementing these measures, India can better prepare for and mitigate the
effects of disasters, making communities safer and more resilient
