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Nepal Earthquake 2015

A case study of an earthquake in a low income country (LIC).

Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world, is a low-income country. Nepal is located between China and India in Asia along the Himalayan Mountains.

A map to show the location of Nepal in Asia

What caused the Nepal Earthquake?

The earthquake occurred on a  collision plate boundary between the Indian and Eurasian plates.

What were the impacts of the Nepal earthquake?

Infrastructure.

• Centuries-old buildings were destroyed at UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the Kathmandu Valley, including some at the Changu Narayan Temple and the Dharahara Tower.
• Thousands of houses were destroyed across many districts of the country.

Social and economic

• Eight thousand six hundred thirty-two dead and 19,009 injured.
• It was the worst earthquake in Nepal in more than 80 years.
• People chose to sleep outside in cold temperatures due to the risk of aftershocks causing damaged buildings to collapse.
• Hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless, with entire villages flattened.
• Harvests were reduced or lost that season.
• Economic losses were estimated to be between nine per cent to 50 per cent of GDP by The United States Geological Survey (USGS).
• Tourism is a significant source of revenue in Nepal, and the earthquake led to a sharp drop in the number of visitors.
• An avalanche killed at least 17 people at the Mount Everest Base Camp.
• Many landslides occurred along steep valleys. For example, 250 people were killed when the village of Ghodatabela was covered in material.

What were the primary effects of the 2015 earthquake in Nepal?

The primary effects of the 2015 earthquake in Nepal include:

• Nine thousand people died, and 19,000 people were injured – over 8 million people were affected.
• Three million people were made homeless.
• Electricity and water supplies, along with communications, were affected.
• 1.4 million people needed support with access to water, food and shelter in the days and weeks after the earthquake
• Seven thousand schools were destroyed.
• Hospitals were overwhelmed.
• As aid arrived, the international airport became congested.
• 50% of shops were destroyed, affecting supplies of food and people’s livelihoods.
• The cost of the earthquake was estimated to be US$5 billion.

What were the secondary effects of the 2015 earthquake in Nepal?

The secondary effects of the 2015 earthquake in Nepal include:

• Avalanches and landslides were triggered by the quake, blocking rocks and hampering the relief effort.
• At least nineteen people lost their lives on Mount Everest due to avalanches.
• Two hundred fifty people were missing in the Langtang region due to an avalanche.
• The Kali Gandaki River was blocked by a landslide leading many people to be evacuated due to the increased risk of flooding.
• Tourism employment and income declined.
• Rice seed ruined, causing food shortage and income loss.

What were the immediate responses to the Nepal earthquake?

• India and China provided over $1 billion of international aid .
• Over 100 search and rescue responders, medics and disaster and rescue experts were provided by The UK, along with three Chinook helicopters for use by the Nepali government.
• The GIS tool “Crisis mapping” was used to coordinate the response.
• Aid workers from charities such as the Red Cross came to help.
• Temporary housing was provided, including a ‘Tent city’ in Kathmandu.
• Search and rescue teams, and water and medical support arrived quickly from China, the UK and India.
• Half a million tents were provided to shelter the homeless.
• Helicopters rescued people caught in avalanches on Mount Everest and delivered aid to villages cut off by landslides.
• Field hospitals were set up to take pressure off hospitals.
• Three hundred thousand people migrated from Kathmandu to seek shelter and support from friends and family.
• Facebook launched a safety feature for users to indicate they were safe.

What were the long-term responses to the Nepal earthquake?

• A $3 million grant was provided by The Asian Development Bank (ADB) for immediate relief efforts and up to $200 million for the first phase of rehabilitation.
• Many countries donated aid. £73 million was donated by the UK (£23 million by the government and £50 million by the public). In addition to this, the UK provided 30 tonnes of humanitarian aid and eight tonnes of equipment.
• Landslides were cleared, and roads were repaired.
• Lakes that formed behind rivers damned by landslides were drained to avoid flooding.
• Stricter building codes were introduced.
• Thousands of homeless people were rehoused, and damaged homes were repaired.
• Over 7000 schools were rebuilt.
• Repairs were made to Everest base camp and trekking routes – by August 2015, new routes were established, and the government reopened the mountain to tourists.
• A blockade at the Indian border was cleared in late 2015, allowing better movement of fuels, medicines and construction materials.

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Earthquake Devastates Nepal, Killing More Than 1,900

A man surveyed the rubble on Sunday, a day after a massive earthquake struck near Katmandu, Nepal.

Family members of earthquake victims mourned the devastation Sunday morning.

Fearing more quakes and building collapses, many people chose to sleep on the streets.

The area’s shops ran short of bottled water, stocks of dry food, and telephone charge cards. Stands offered a chance to buy food.

Relief organizations mobilized to provide assistance to those on the ground affected by the earthquake, many of whom sought refuge outside of collapsing buildings.

Thousands of people were feared injured. A survivor was pulled from the debris.  For hours after the earthquake, many residents were afraid to go back indoors.

Many structures collapsed, including the nine-story Dharahara Tower, which was built in 1832 as a watchtower on the orders of the queen. Several dozen people were thought to have been on a viewing platform at the tower when the quake hit.

Minutes after a major earthquake struck near Katmandu,  Nepal, rescuers pulled a survivor from the rubble. The quake, with an estimated magnitude of 7.8, killed at least a thousand people.

Aftershocks, some powerful, complicated the rescue efforts. A victim was helped in Katmandu. Building collapses in Katmandu appeared largely confined to brick structures in the city’s historic area, rather than concrete high-rise buildings.

For many people, there was little rescuers could do. This woman was declared dead at the scene.

By Ellen Barry

• April 25, 2015

NEW DELHI — A powerful earthquake shook Nepal on Saturday near its capital, Katmandu, killing more than 1,900 people, flattening sections of the city’s historic center, and trapping dozens of sightseers in a 200-foot watchtower that came crashing down into a pile of bricks.

As officials in Nepal faced the devastation on Sunday morning, they said that most of the 1,931 deaths occurred in Katmandu and the surrounding valley, and that more than 4,700 people had been injured. But the quake touched a vast expanse of the subcontinent. It set off avalanches around Mount Everest, where at least 17 climbers died . At least 34 deaths occurred in northern India. Buildings swayed in Tibet and Bangladesh.

The earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.8, struck shortly before noon, and residents of Katmandu ran into the streets and other open spaces as buildings fell, throwing up clouds of dust. Wide cracks opened on paved streets and in the walls of city buildings. Motorcycles tipped over and slid off the edge of a highway.

By midafternoon, the United States Geological Survey had counted 12 aftershocks, one of which measured 6.6.

Devastation in Katmandu

A deadly earthquake shook nepal on saturday near its capital, katmandu, and set off avalanches around mount everest..

Seismologists have expected a major earthquake in western Nepal, where there is pent-up pressure from the grinding of the Indian tectonic plate as is it forced underneath the Eurasian plate to the north. Still, witnesses described a chaotic rescue effort during the first hours after the quake as emergency workers and volunteers grabbed tools and bulldozers from construction sites, and dug with hacksaws, mangled reinforcing bars and their hands.

Though many have worried about the stability of the concrete high-rises that have been hastily erected in Katmandu, the most terrible damage on Saturday was to the oldest part of the city, which is studded with temples and palaces made of wood and unmortared brick.

Four of the area’s seven Unesco World Heritage sites were severely damaged in the earthquake: Bhaktapur Durbar Square, a temple complex built in the shape of a conch shell; Patan Durbar Square, which dates to the third century; Basantapur Durbar Square, which was the residence of Nepal’s royal family until the 19th century; and the Boudhanath Stupa, one of the oldest Buddhist monuments in the Himalayas.

For many, the most breathtaking architectural loss was the nine-story Dharahara Tower, which was built in 1832 on the orders of the queen. The tower had recently reopened to the public, and visitors could ascend a spiral staircase to a viewing platform around 200 feet above the city.

The walls were brick, around one and a half feet thick, and when the earthquake struck, they came crashing down.

The police said on Saturday that they had pulled about 60 bodies from the rubble of the tower. Kashish Das Shrestha, a photographer and writer, spent much of the day in the old city, but said he still had trouble grasping that the tower was gone.

“I was here yesterday, I was here the day before yesterday, and it was there,” he said. “Today it’s just gone. Last night, from my terrace, I was looking at the tower. And today I was at the tower — and there is no tower.”

Kanak Mani Dixit, a Nepalese political commentator, said he had been having lunch with his parents when the quake struck. The rolling was so intense and sustained that he had trouble getting to his feet, he said. He helped his father and an elderly neighbor to safety in the garden outside and then had to carry his elderly mother.

“And I had time to do all that while the quake was still going on,” Mr. Dixit said. “It was like being on a boat in heavy seas.”

Roger Bilham, a professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado, said the shaking lasted about one minute, although it continued for another minute in some places.

Nepal’s Historic Sites, Before and After the Earthquake

The earthquake that struck Nepal on April 25 flattened sections of Katmandu’s historic center, where many structures were made with bricks.

For years, people have worried about an earthquake of this magnitude in western Nepal. Many feared that an immense death toll would result, in part because construction has been largely unregulated in recent years, said Ganesh K. Bhattari, a Nepalese expert on earthquakes, now living in Denmark.

He said the government had made some buildings more robust and reinforced vulnerable ones, but many larger buildings, like hospitals and old-age homes, remained extremely vulnerable. “There is a little bit of improvement,” he said. “But it is really difficult for people to implement the rules and the regulations.”

Kunda Dixit, the editor of The Nepali Times, said that Nepal was still emerging from many years of turmoil — a decade-long war with Maoist insurgents, followed by chronic political uncertainty — and that contingency planning for events like earthquakes had often taken a back seat to “present disasters.”

“The government hasn’t been able to get around to a lot of things, not just disaster preparedness,” Mr. Dixit said.

Saturday’s earthquake struck when schools were not in session, which may have reduced the death toll. But there was not yet a full picture of the damage to villages on the mountain ridges around Katmandu, where families live in houses made of mud and thatch.

Earthquake in Nepal Kills Hundreds

An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.8 shook nepal on saturday near its capital, katmandu, flattening sections of the city’s historic center..

As night fell, aftershocks were still hitting, prompting waves of screaming. Many residents sat on roads for much of the day, afraid to go back indoors, and many insisted that they would spend the night outside despite the cold. Thousands camped out at the city’s parade ground. The city’s shops were running short of bottled water, dry food and telephone charge cards.

Toward evening, hospitals were trying to accommodate a huge influx of patients, some with amputated limbs, and were running short of supplies like bandages and trauma kits, said Jamie McGoldrick, resident coordinator with the United Nations Development Program in Nepal . Water supplies, a problem under normal circumstances in this fast-growing city, will almost certainly run short, he said.

Search and rescue personnel will face the challenge of reaching villages nearer the quake’s epicenter, about 50 miles northwest of Katmandu, where damage may be catastrophic.

Secretary of State John Kerry said the American ambassador to Nepal, Peter W. Bodde, had issued a disaster declaration that would allow $1 million in humanitarian assistance to be available immediately. A disaster response team and an urban search-and-rescue team from the United States Agency for International Development will also be deployed, he said in a statement,

China and India, which jockey for influence in the region, have pledged disaster assistance.

On Mount Everest, several hundred trekkers were attempting an ascent when the earthquake struck, setting off avalanches, according to climbers there. Alex Gavan, a hiker at base camp, called it a “huge disaster” on Twitter and described “running for life from my tent.” Nima Namgyal Sherpa, a tour guide at base camp, said in a Facebook post that many camps had been destroyed.

Tremors from the quake were felt across northern India, rattling bookcases and light fixtures as far away as New Delhi. Electricity was switched off for safety reasons in the Indian state of Bihar, where three deaths were reported in one district, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, India’s minister of skill development, told reporters in New Delhi. Two deaths were reported in another district.

The region has been the site of the largest earthquakes in the Himalayas, including a 2005 quake in the Kashmir region and a 1905 earthquake in Kangra, India.

An article last Sunday about a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal near its capital, Katmandu, referred imprecisely to the seismic pressure building up in western Nepal. The Indian tectonic plate is being forced underneath the Eurasian plate to the north; although it is pushing back up against the Eurasian plate, it is not itself being forced upward. In addition, a map with the continuation of the article mislabeled, in some editions, the location of Mount Everest. It straddles the Nepal-China border; it is not entirely in China.

How we handle corrections

Reporting was contributed by Gardiner Harris, Nida Najar and Hari Kumar from New Delhi; Bhadra Sharma from Katmandu, Nepal; Chris Buckley from Hong Kong; and Kenneth Chang from New York.

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• Published: 26 April 2015

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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Seismology: Quake catcher 2013-Jun-19

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Earthquake risk calculator goes global 2010-Jun-02

World view: Brick by brick 2010-May-05

Himalayas on alert 2001-Aug-24

Western Himalayan region faces big quake risk

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US Geological Survey event summary: 7.8 earthquake in Lamjung, Nepal

Nepal National Seismological Centre

National Society for Earthquake Technology-Nepal

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The Humanitarian Response to the 2015 Nepal Earthquake

About the author, puk ovesen and stine heiselberg.

May 2016, No. 1 Vol. LIII, Humanitarian Action: A Shared Responsibility

O n the morning of 25 April 2015, Nepal shook with a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. When the dust settled, thousands of people had died and buildings had come crumbling down. It was a Saturday, a day off in Nepal, which means that the offices and schools that had collapsed were closed. If it had been any other day, the death toll could have been much higher. A little more than two weeks later, on 12 May, a 7.3 magnitude aftershock struck, resulting in more casualties and destruction.

More than 8,800 lives were lost, thousands of people were injured, and over 800,000 buildings and monuments were left destroyed or damaged. Experts pegged direct damages and losses at a staggering $7 billion.

In those first few days following the earthquake, the first responders were members of local communities, along with Nepalis from across the country. Neighbours pulled neighbours out of the rubble. People shared their scarce resources with those in need. The youth of Nepal mobilized to collect relief items and travelled long distances across difficult terrain to help their fellow citizens recover. Local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) used their extensive networks to provide critical information to the military and humanitarian actors. They deployed volunteers on foot, carrying supplies on their backs to the most remote areas, places helicopters and vehicles could not reach.

With help from the United Nations, the Government of Nepal, thousands of volunteers and over 450 humanitarian agencies responded to deliver critical life-saving aid to affected communities. The United Nations, donors, international NGOs and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies immediately mobilized resources and reprogrammed activities. On 29 April, the Humanitarian Country Team launched the Nepal Earthquake Flash Appeal to provide protection and relief to 2.8 million people. Under the Flash Appeal, from April to September 2015, humanitarian assistance reached 3.7 million people.

Now, as we mark one year since the 25 April 2015 earthquake, we can reflect on what went well and what could have been done better. Recent formal evaluations and reviews of the response by the humanitarian community have been positive, finding that collective humanitarian efforts were quick, well-coordinated and effective. The effectiveness of the response was facilitated by a collaborative approach among donors, as well as by the United Nations and national stakeholders that existed before the earthquake.

The fact that previous preparedness efforts capitalized on existing capacity, and that this capacity was not bypassed once the disaster occurred, likely contributed to an easier transition back to pre-existing structures when the massive international aid machinery left again. Also underlying these successes, however, is the finding that preparedness planning needs to be stepped up even further, with no time to waste. The collection of information and its strategic use needs to better guide the response, and engagement between humanitarian actors and the national Government needs to improve. Stronger linkages with in-country actors are required, and understanding and supporting community capacity are paramount. 1 The pockets of residual need require continued monitoring, as well as systematic integration into recovery and development activities to ensure that no one is left behind.

These challenges are not unique to Nepal. Natural disasters around the world affect, on average, more than 200 million people and displace more than 20 million people on a yearly basis. 2 The impact of, and preparedness and response to, natural hazards will be a central topic when the humanitarian community and world leaders gather at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul in May 2016.

When disaster strikes, the humanitarian community can rely heavily on approaches that are already in place in many countries. For example, the Human Rights-Based Approach ensures that there is a concerted effort to reach and serve those who are in the most vulnerable situations; applying this approach in a crisis is critical to promoting an effective response. Only by working together with those already in-country—local communities, local government, development actors, the national Government, the private sector, civil society, the armed forces—can the humanitarian community be truly effective in addressing the needs and concerns of affected populations.

Consideration of how existing models of humanitarian response reinforce or undermine the self-recovery of communities needs special attention when reflecting on the way forward for the humanitarian community at the World Humanitarian Summit. If the core commitment to changing people’s lives, as set out in the Secretary-General’s report for the Summit, One Humanity: Shared Responsibility , is to be achieved, focusing on needs alone may not be enough.

Prior to the 2015 disaster, the United Nations Country team and the Government of Nepal laid a strong foundation for the response in the form of the Nepal Risk Reduction Consortium and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework. This foundation enabled drivers of the humanitarian response to draw on existing analysis and data from development efforts, instead of starting from scratch with humanitarian assessments to inform the response. Nepal, like many other nations, is a complex country with unique needs. Those needs were outlined in the Framework, which has a strong focus on human rights, gender equality and the social inclusion of vulnerable groups. It is underpinned by extensive disaggregated analysis and assessments. The Flash Appeal, which was based on this vital data, included an ambitious strategic objective to “protect the rights of those most affected, and promote inclusive access to humanitarian assistance, with particular attention to the most disadvantaged groups”.

From the onset of the crisis, the humanitarian community understood the importance of local engagement and accountability to the affected population, as well as gender and social inclusion issues. Feedback and outreach mechanisms were swiftly established to promote a humanitarian effort that was responsive to the needs identified by communities. This approach facilitated input from thousands of people on a regular basis, reaching 10 million people with communications products, as well as enhanced attention to sex- and age-disaggregated data and reporting.

Globally, the humanitarian system remains focused more on communicating to communities, rather than with them. Significant efforts by humanitarian actors to engage with the affected population have been undertaken, however, because of recent reforms in the humanitarian system. For example, the Inter-Agency Common Feedback Project is an innovative initiative undertaken by the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator’s Office in Nepal to prioritize and promote community engagement.

The Feedback Project collected community feedback through periodical perception surveys, rumours and concerns tracking, as well as existing agency feedback mechanisms. That information was formulated into consolidated reports. The reports were subsequently shared with humanitarian actors, as well as civil society and district authorities, resulting in adaptive programming and planning to ensure that response efforts were aligned with community-raised concerns and needs. Using local radio and community meetings, enquiring people could gain relevant and accurate information—something highly valued by affected communities.

Nepal is one of two pilot countries in the Asia-Pacific region rolling out the new Inter-Agency Standing Committee Emergency Response Preparedness initiative. This presents a unique opportunity to ensure that systems and tools are in place to strengthen the human rights perspective and engagement with communities in future responses. As part of this ongoing work, UN-Women, together with the Humanitarian Country Team, is testing a gender package, which will contribute best practices as the Emergency Response Preparedness Guidelines are introduced globally.

The principles and commitments are in place. The challenge is now to ensure that the voices of affected people are heard and their rights are protected. This will require context-specific innovations and investment in initiatives such as the Common Feedback Project. The onus is on humanitarian actors to identify practical solutions to enhancing engagement and to promote systematically the participation and leadership of women, men and subgroups of affected communities. One step towards this paradigm shift in humanitarian action is to stop considering the people we serve as vulnerable. We must empower the individuals who, despite hardship, marginalization and/or discrimination, have no other choice but to find the strength and means to recover.  

1       STAIT Learning Reviews, Global Learning from the Nepal Preparedness for Response Learning Review, Senior Transformative  Agenda Implementation Team (STAIT). January 2016; Nepal Earthquake: Humanitarian Country Team After Action Report, Workshop Summary Report 2015.

2       Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) and others, “The human cost of natural disasters 2015: a global perspective”, Research report (Brussels, Belgium, School of Public Health, Université catholique de Louvain, 2015). Available from http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/PAND_report.pdf .  Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), Global Estimates 2015: People displaced by disasters, Global disaster displacement data, July 2015. Available from http://www.internal-displacement.org/global-figures/#natural (accessed 28 April 2016).

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April 2015 earthquake in Nepal reviewed in detail

For more than 20 years, Caltech geologist Jean-Philippe Avouac has collaborated with the Department of Mines and Geology of Nepal to study the Himalayas--the most active, above-water mountain range on Earth--to learn more about the processes that build mountains and trigger earthquakes. Over that period, he and his colleagues have installed a network of GPS stations in Nepal that allows them to monitor the way Earth's crust moves during and in between earthquakes. So when he heard on April 25 that a magnitude 7.8 earthquake had struck near Gorkha, Nepal, not far from Kathmandu, he thought he knew what to expect--utter devastation throughout Kathmandu and a death toll in the hundreds of thousands.

"At first when I saw the news trickling in from Kathmandu, I thought there was a problem of communication, that we weren't hearing the full extent of the damage," says Avouac, Caltech's Earle C. Anthony Professor of Geology. "As it turns out, there was little damage to the regular dwellings, and thankfully, as a result, there were far fewer deaths than I originally anticipated."

Using data from the GPS stations, an accelerometer that measures ground motion in Kathmandu, data from seismological stations around the world, and radar images collected by orbiting satellites, an international team of scientists led by Caltech has pieced together the first complete account of what physically happened during the Gorkha earthquake--a picture that explains how the large earthquake wound up leaving the majority of low-story buildings unscathed while devastating some treasured taller structures.

The findings are described in two papers that now appear online. The first, in the journal Nature Geoscience , is based on an analysis of seismological records collected more than 1,000 kilometers from the epicenter and places the event in the context of what scientists knew of the seismic setting near Gorkha before the earthquake. The second paper, appearing in Science Express , goes into finer detail about the rupture process during the April 25 earthquake and how it shook the ground in Kathmandu.

In the first study, the researchers show that the earthquake occurred on the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT), the main megathrust fault along which northern India is pushing beneath Eurasia at a rate of about two centimeters per year, driving the Himalayas upward. Based on GPS measurements, scientists know that a large portion of this fault is "locked." Large earthquakes typically release stress on such locked faults--as the lower tectonic plate (here, the Indian plate) pulls the upper plate (here, the Eurasian plate) downward, strain builds in these locked sections until the upper plate breaks free, releasing strain and producing an earthquake. There are areas along the fault in western Nepal that are known to be locked and have not experienced a major earthquake since a big one (larger than magnitude 8.5) in 1505. But the Gorkha earthquake ruptured only a small fraction of the locked zone, so there is still the potential for the locked portion to produce a large earthquake.

"The Gorkha earthquake didn't do the job of transferring deformation all the way to the front of the Himalaya," says Avouac. "So the Himalaya could certainly generate larger earthquakes in the future, but we have no idea when."

The epicenter of the April 25 event was located in the Gorkha District of Nepal, 75 kilometers to the west-northwest of Kathmandu, and propagated eastward at a rate of about 2.8 kilometers per second, causing slip in the north-south direction--a progression that the researchers describe as "unzipping" a section of the locked fault.

"With the geological context in Nepal, this is a place where we expect big earthquakes. We also knew, based on GPS measurements of the way the plates have moved over the last two decades, how 'stuck' this particular fault was, so this earthquake was not a surprise," says Jean Paul Ampuero, assistant professor of seismology at Caltech and coauthor on the Nature Geoscience paper. "But with every earthquake there are always surprises."

In this case, one of the surprises was that the quake did not rupture all the way to the surface. Records of past earthquakes on the same fault--including a powerful one (possibly as strong as magnitude 8.4) that shook Kathmandu in 1934--indicate that ruptures have previously reached the surface. But Avouac, Ampuero, and their colleagues used satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar data and a technique called back projection that takes advantage of the dense arrays of seismic stations in the United States, Europe, and Australia to track the progression of the earthquake, and found that it was quite contained at depth. The high-frequency waves that were largely produced in the lower section of the rupture occurred at a depth of about 15 kilometers.

"That was good news for Kathmandu," says Ampuero. "If the earthquake had broken all the way to the surface, it could have been much, much worse."

The researchers note, however, that the Gorkha earthquake did increase the stress on the adjacent portion of the fault that remains locked, closer to Kathmandu. It is unclear whether this additional stress will eventually trigger another earthquake or if that portion of the fault will "creep," a process that allows the two plates to move slowly past one another, dissipating stress. The researchers are building computer models and monitoring post-earthquake deformation of the crust to try to determine which scenario is more likely.

Another surprise from the earthquake, one that explains why many of the homes and other buildings in Kathmandu were spared, is described in the Science Express paper. Avouac and his colleagues found that for such a large-magnitude earthquake, high-frequency shaking in Kathmandu was actually relatively mild. And it is high-frequency waves, with short periods of vibration of less than one second, that tend to affect low-story buildings. The Nature Geoscience paper showed that the high-frequency waves that the quake produced came from the deeper edge of the rupture, on the northern end away from Kathmandu.

The GPS records described in the Science Express paper show that within the zone that experienced the greatest amount of slip during the earthquake--a region south of the sources of high-frequency waves and closer to Kathmandu--the onset of slip on the fault was actually very smooth. It took nearly two seconds for the slip rate to reach its maximum value of one meter per second. In general, the more abrupt the onset of slip during an earthquake, the more energetic the radiated high-frequency seismic waves. So the relatively gradual onset of slip in the Gorkha event explains why this patch, which experienced a large amount of slip, did not generate many high-frequency waves.

"It would be good news if the smooth onset of slip, and hence the limited induced shaking, were a systematic property of the Himalayan megathrust fault, or of megathrust faults in general." says Avouac. "Based on observations from this and other megathrust earthquakes, this is a possibility."

In contrast to what they saw with high-frequency waves, the researchers found that the earthquake produced an unexpectedly large amount of low-frequency waves with longer periods of about five seconds. This longer-period shaking was responsible for the collapse of taller structures in Kathmandu, such as the Dharahara Tower, a 60-meter-high tower that survived larger earthquakes in 1833 and 1934 but collapsed completely during the Gorkha quake.

To understand this, consider plucking the strings of a guitar. Each string resonates at a certain natural frequency, or pitch, depending on the length, composition, and tension of the string. Likewise, buildings and other structures have a natural pitch or frequency of shaking at which they resonate; in general, the taller the building, the longer the period at which it resonates. If a strong earthquake causes the ground to shake with a frequency that matches a building's pitch, the shaking will be amplified within the building, and the structure will likely collapse.

Turning to the GPS records from two of Avouac's stations in the Kathmandu Valley, the researchers found that the effect of the low-frequency waves was amplified by the geological context of the Kathmandu basin. The basin is an ancient lakebed that is now filled with relatively soft sediment. For about 40 seconds after the earthquake, seismic waves from the quake were trapped within the basin and continued to reverberate, ringing like a bell with a frequency of five seconds.

"That's just the right frequency to damage tall buildings like the Dharahara Tower because it's close to their natural period," Avouac explains.

In follow-up work, Domniki Asimaki, professor of mechanical and civil engineering at Caltech, is examining the details of the shaking experienced throughout the basin. On a recent trip to Kathmandu, she documented very little damage to low-story buildings throughout much of the city but identified a pattern of intense shaking experienced at the edges of the basin, on hilltops or in the foothills where sediment meets the mountains. This was largely due to the resonance of seismic waves within the basin.

Asimaki notes that Los Angeles is also built atop sedimentary deposits and is surrounded by hills and mountain ranges that would also be prone to this type of increased shaking intensity during a major earthquake.

"In fact," she says, "the buildings in downtown Los Angeles are much taller than those in Kathmandu and therefore resonate with a much lower frequency. So if the same shaking had happened in L.A., a lot of the really tall buildings would have been challenged."

That points to one of the reasons it is important to understand how the land responded to the Gorkha earthquake, Avouac says. "Such studies of the site effects in Nepal provide an important opportunity to validate the codes and methods we use to predict the kind of shaking and damage that would be expected as a result of earthquakes elsewhere, such as in the Los Angeles Basin."

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Story Source:

Materials provided by California Institute of Technology . Original written by Kimm Fesenmaier. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal References :

• Jean-Paul Ampuero et al. Lower edge of locked Main Himalayan Thrust unzipped by the 2015 Gorkha earthquake . Nature Geoscience , August 2015 DOI: 10.1038/ngeo2518
• N. Maharjan et al. Slip pulse and resonance of Kathmandu basin during the 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha earthquake, Nepal imaged with geodesy . Science Express , August 2015 DOI: 10.1126/science.aac6383

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The Nepal Earthquakes of 2015: One Year On

Takuya kamata.

Director for the Singapore Hub for Infrastructure and Urban Development, East Asia and Pacific

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Nepal quake: more than 1,000 people dead after tremor near Kathmandu

Nepalese authorities warn death toll is likely to rise following worst quake in Himalayan nation in more than 80 years

More than 1,000 people have been killed after a major earthquake hit Nepal , toppling buildings in the capital, Kathmandu, and triggering avalanches in the Himalayas.

Nepalese police said the death toll in the Himalayan kingdom had risen to 1,130, while 34 fatalities were reported in northern India and one in Bangladesh.

Most of the Nepalese fatalities are from the Kathmandu Valley, where 634 people were reported to be dead, with at least 300 more in the capital.

Nepalese authorities earlier warned there were also likely to be significant casualties in the remote districts nearer the epicentre of the earthquake, 50 miles north-west of Kathmandu.

At least 13 people were killed on Everest after the quake triggered a massive avalanche. It trapped other climbers higher on the mountain while those in base camp ran for their lives to escape falling ice and rock.

Other base camps nearby are also thought to have been affected , possibly hit by major avalanches triggered by the tremor.

Thousands of people in Kathmandu are bedding down outside for the night, fearing further aftershocks.

In the old city of Patan, which adjoins southern Kathmandu, residents clutched blankets as they gathered in open areas and temple grounds.

“Everyone is scared of a repeat”, said Rabin Shakya, 29. “I rushed outside when I felt the earthquake. I was terrified. I’ve stayed outside all day.”

Shakya will spend the night in a local plant nursery along with about 200 other residents of Tapahita Nyadhal.

Laxmi Bhatacharja, 70, who was also planning to spend the night outdoor, said: “When the earthquake happened, I ran outside without my shoes. My heart was racing. I’m staying here outside. I’m too afraid to go back indoors.”

In the neighbouring community of Nyakha Chowk, about 1,500 residents assembled around a Buddhist temple for the night where dinner was being cooked in two giant pots for the whole community. “Everyone has made a donation,” said Vidho Ratna.

At least two ancient temples in the historic Patan Durbar Square have been completely destroyed.

Victims from the square were taken to the nearby Bir hospital, where doctors battled to save lives and treat the wounded.

Gajendra Mani Shah, a doctor, said the hospital was dealing mainly with head traumas and limb injuries from falling rubble. He estimated that the hospital had treated about 400 patients and at least 50 had died.

Victims at the hospital were lying in rows on mattresses, surrounded by blood-soaked tissues and overflowing bedpans. Patients also lined the corridors, hooked up to IVs hanging off metal railings.

A family were sat with their 20-year-old relative, Kanchan Sunwar, who had collapsed when the earthquake struck. She had been with friends in the main square when they saw the buildings sway and start to fall. Her friends said she fainted and has been in and out of consciousness since she was brought to the hospital. “She’s in shock,” her family said.

The hospital was working over capacity into the evening, with doctors being called in from leave. Erabesh Gyawali was not meant to be on shift on Saturday, but he came into work after the first tremor hit.

Gyawali said he was with his wife riding their scooter when the quake happened. They were thrown off the bike and narrowly missed being hit by falling rubble from a building.For the most part, Kathmandu has shown remarkable structural and communal resilience.

Subarna Khadka, 44, of New Baneshwor, was bathing when the first tremor struck. “I tried to come out hurriedly when I experienced the shake, but couldn’t come outside as the door was jammed,” he said. “I almost lost my hope of life, as I was trapped in the bathroom. But my wife rescued me once the shaking got quiet. I could only pray to God for life.”

Officials in India said 34 people had been killed in the country, with dozens more injured. More than 100 people were injured, as well as the one death, in Bangladesh.

The earthquake, which measured 7.9 on the Richter scale, sent tremors throughout much of south Asia at 11.41 Nepal local time on Saturday.

Within minutes, hundreds of people with injuries were being brought to the main hospital in central Kathmandu, with further reports of damage and injuries coming in from nearby towns and the city of Pokhara in the west of the country.

Jamie McGoldrick, the UN resident coordinator for Nepal, said: “It’s difficult to say the extent of the damage. A full-scale assessment is not yet complete, but this was a particularly large earthquake and a very shallow one so we are expecting high and significant damage, especially in Lamjung, Gorkha district [the epicentre of the earthquake]. There’s no doubt it’s a very big earthquake, but we are fortunate it was not in, or closer to Kathmandu, or the impact would have been catastrophic.”

Kathmandu’s Dharhara tower, a popular tourist site, has collapsed, raising fears of significant loss of life. Two police officers at the 60-metre tower said up to 160 tickets had been issued to visitors at the time of the quake.

Sujata Thapa, 22, said: “I was passing by Dharhara [tower] when I felt a huge tremor of earthquake. I stood still. In a few seconds, I saw Dharhara falling down. People were screaming in pain.”

Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world and ill-equipped to deal with a major disaster. The country’s only international airport – in Kathmandu – was closed as the tremors continued.

People tried to shift piles of rubble with their bare hands in a bid to reach survivors. Most of the buildings that collapsed appeared to be older, weaker brick structures.

The quake brought scenes of panic. Hospitals reported hundreds of people seeking treatment for injuries from falling debris in the city.

National radio warned people to stay outdoors and maintain calm because more aftershocks were feared. A 6.6-magnitude aftershock hit about an hour after the initial quake. Smaller aftershocks continued to arrive every few minutes throughout much of early afternoon.

The Kathmandu valley is densely populated with nearly 2.5 million people and the quality of buildings is often poor.

Nepal suffered its worst recorded earthquake in 1934, which measured 8.0 and all but destroyed the cities of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan, killing more than 8,500 people. It was hit by another deadly quake in 2011 , when at least five people died.

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The Story Behind the Photos of Nepal’s Devastating Earthquake

F reelance photographer Omar Havana was at home in Kathmandu when an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale hit central Nepal.

“Everything started moving and my wife and I could [barely] stand,” Havana tells TIME. “I live in a six-floor house, so we ran downstairs as the building started to crack. It was very scary—people were running, shouting and crying. It was awful.”

With a death toll rising by the hour —this earthquake is Nepal’s worst in 81 years—Havana witnessed scenes of panic as people looked for safety in open spaces. “There were more replicas, which scared everyone even more,” he said. “It has been one of the worst scenes I’ve witnessed in my life.”

The Spanish photographer, who moved to Kathmandu seven months ago and is represented by Getty Images, also saw acts of humanity. “People are doing amazing work,” he said. “They’re doing everything they [can] to help each other.”

Havana has been documenting these scenes, filing images that show the extraordinary extent of the destruction and the astonishing solidarity in its wake. “I try to be as human as I can be but it’s hard not to be overwhelmed [by] what’s in front of my eyes: a hand appearing from the debris, a mother hold[ing] her baby. I’m just trying to tell the story of the people and the damage caused to the city.”

While shooting, Havana is also on the lookout for survivors, helping clear rubble. “I keep my eyes open, hoping I will see a person alive under the debris.”

With communications networks severely impacted, Havana has been working with colleagues from other media organizations to get his images out. “Once again, I owe the people of Nepal a lot,” he said. “They are opening us their doors to let us charge our laptops and use Internet from their houses.”

“Today has been one of the saddest of my life,” he added. “I am new in Nepal but the people [have made] me love this country as my home. I am devastated to see this situation.”

Omar Havana is a freelance photographer based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He is represented by Getty Images.

Mikko Takkunen, who edited this photo essay, is an Associate Photo Editor at TIME. Follow him on Twitter @photojournalism .

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Nepal's economy is going to take years rebuild

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — What took moments to flatten will take years to rebuild.

In mere seconds a powerful earthquake devastated a swathe of Nepal. Rebuilding the impoverished Himalayan nation's fragile economy will require a long slog, financed by foreign aid and money from its army of overseas workers.

Initial estimates peg the economic damage from the temblor that killed more than 5,000 people at billions of dollars. The tourism industry, a pillar of the economy, has been shattered and it's unclear when the travelers will return.

"It's been devastating. Their tourism economy has obviously come to a halt," said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific economist with IHS. "I don't know when it would be realistic for tourists to again visit Nepal."

Biswas forecasts the cost of reconstruction could exceed $5 billion or about 20 percent of Nepal's economy. An initial estimate by the U.S. Geological Service reckons damages of $1 billion to $10 billion. Other analysts say it's far too early to assess the full cost.

Tourism provides 7 percent of Nepal's jobs and accounts for 8 percent of the economy, according to the Asian Development Bank.

"I've had all my reservations cancelled. I have nil bookings left," said Hari Man Lama, of Incentive Tours, a travel company in Kathmandu. "This disaster is going to bring a big loss to the travel industry and to the tens of thousands of people who depend on the tourists for their livelihood."

Last year nearly 800,000 people visited Nepal, home to eight of the world's 14 tallest peaks, including 8,848-meter (29,029-foot) Mount Everest, the world's highest. The quake, which struck in the middle of the tourist high season, destroyed nearly half of the UNESCO World Heritage sites in Kathmandu and triggered avalanches on Everest that killed 19. It's the latest setback for the industry, which suffered two tragedies in 2014.

Travelers are canceling trips as governments issue advisories to stay away. Those still in the country are scrambling to get home.

"Tourists are fleeing because of the continuing aftershocks, which have brought fear and terror," said Lama. "There's fear of the spread of disease because of the dead bodies that are still unburied and the lack of water and supplies."

Last April, the climbing season was cut short when 16 Sherpa guides were killed by an avalanche on Everest. In October, nearly four dozen foreign trekkers, guides and villagers were killed by snow storms and avalanches that swept the Annapurna region.

Three of the seven World Heritage sites in the Kathmandu Valley have been severely damaged, including Durbar Square with pagodas and temples dating from the 15th to 18th centuries, according to UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency.

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"The damage to these cultural landmarks will have a significant economic impact," said Alok Bohara, head of the University of New Mexico's Nepal Study Center.

He said similar cultural rebuilding was carried out after another major earthquake struck in 1934, and it could be done again by master artisans provided they're given enough resources.

"This is utterly vital because not only the whole valley economy depends on these cultural icons, but it will affect many other tourism-related economic activities all across Nepal," Bohara said.

The economic fallout is concentrated in the densely populated Kathmandu Valley. The damage has been severe because so many homes were flimsily constructed.

"It's going to be difficult for a developing country to overcome," said Mark Skidmore, a Michigan State University economist who studies natural disasters. Haiti is still floundering five years after an earthquake killed more than 300,000.

The Nepalese government is ill-equipped to handle relief efforts. The country is deeply divided along ethnic and political lines nearly a decade after a bloody Maoist insurgency ended with a 2006 peace accord. Nepal ranks as the world's 126th most-corrupt country out of 174 in a report by anti-corruption advocacy group Transparency International. The United Nations ranks it 145th out of 187 countries in its Human Development Index, with annual per capita income of just $712.

Rebuilding "will all have to be pretty much funded by other countries" and institutions, said Biswas of IHS.

The ADB has already granted $3 million for immediate relief and pledged another $200 million for the first phase of reconstruction. The United Nations has appealed for $415 million for essential needs over the next three months.

Many families will be leaning more heavily on money sent home from the 2.2 million Nepalis working overseas, mainly in service and construction jobs across Asia and the Middle East. Last year the country received about $5.9 billion in remittances from migrant workers.

Prasupatee Chaudai, who has been working as a security guard in Hong Kong since 2009, said his family in Kathmandu survived the quake without serious injury but it destroyed their house, leaving his parents, sister and a niece homeless.

"I'm very worried," said Chaudai, who earns 17,300 Hong Kong dollars ($2,200) and usually sends HK$1,000 ($130) home each month. Now, that won't be enough but Chaudai, 29, said he can't afford to send more because he's got a wife and three children to support.

Sony Newar, a restaurant worker in Hong Kong, said her husband's relatives in Kathmandu were unaffected but she wanted to donate money to help others in need.

"A few drops of water make an ocean, so if everybody will collect the money it will help them," she said.

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