1. Report Summary
The country of Nepal, located in between two of the most populated countries, China and India, is mainly famous for their big mountainous range called the Himalayas. This mountain range includes the worlds highest mountain, Mount Everest measuring at 8848 metres above sea level. With this big mountainous range though comes a dangerous consequence, being on two tectonic plates. Nepal is one of the poorest countries consisting of a population of about 26 million people with 76% of the population working in agriculture. The earthquake that hit Nepal in April 2015 was deadly and not prepared for. This report will be breaking down the causes of the earthquake, the effects and how it was dealt with by the government and organisations.
Source 1- Nepal Location
2. Causes Of The Earthquake
2.1 Plate Movement
The Earthquake that hit Nepal was caused by a Plate movement called converging. This is when the two plates collide together and usually one slides under the other plate as seen in source 1 and 2. This is evident in Nepal with the Himalayan Mountain range that has been formed from the two tectonic plates being the Eurasian Plate and the Indian Plate. These two plates go right through Nepal making it a big hazard for the country causing other severe earthquakes in the past such as the 1934 earthquake which reached a magnitude of 8.4 and a death toll of about 8500. In Source 3 you can see were the two boundaries meet.
Source 1 Source 2
Source 3
2.2 Strength/Magnitude
The strength of an earthquake is measured by the Richter scale. An earthquake will measure from 0-10 on the Richter scale with 10 being the worse. The Richter scale works like this, a 3.0 is 10 times larger than a 2.0 and another example is a 10.0 is 90 times larger than a 1.0 on the Richter scale. Earthquakes that are 2.0 or lower cannot be felt by a human which is shown in source 1. The earthquake that hit Nepal in 2015 was a magnitude of 7.8 meaning it was 58 times larger than earthquakes that cannot be felt. A magnitude of just a 7.0 generates enough energy to power New York City for one year and is the equivalent of how much energy 1000 tons of TNT would release when exploded.The effects of an earthquake from a 7.0-7.9 magnitude include buildings being displaced and cracks in the earth. The other effects for other magnitudes can be seen in source 2.
Source 1
Source 2
3. Effects/Impacts Of The Earthquake
3.1 Primary Impacts
The following table is showing what primary impacts there were and if they were social, economical or environmental.
Source 1 Source 2
3.2 Secondary Hazards
The earthquake in Nepal triggered a few secondary hazards. One of them was in fact a deadly avalanche on Mount Everest in the Himalayan mountains which trapped climbers on the large mountain at different altitudes and even managed to make its way down to the base camp. At least 17 people were believed to have been killed and it also injured about 61 people. At the time the avalanche hit there were about 100 climbers at the two first points, camp 1 and camp 2. Another problem faced after the avalanche struck was the fact that it would be difficult to get back to base camp as the route was blocked. The effects of the avalanche on the base camp can be seen in source 1. There were some extreme landslides on hills with the worst not effecting anyone but caused wind speeds of 322 kilometres per hour and released half as much energy as the Hiroshima nuclear bomb when it had impact with the ground.
Source 1
3.3 Aftershocks
The aftershocks that come with earthquakes are always a big hazard but for Nepal it was an even bigger hazard. The earthquake that struck Nepal reached a magnitude of 7.8 with that being challenged by an aftershock that reached a magnitude of a 7.3 just less than a month later. There were also quite a few aftershocks that exceeded 5.0 on the Richter scale but none were as deadly as the 7.3 aftershock.
4. Short Term Responses
4.1 Emergency Services
Along side the usual emergency services such as medical/ambulance services, police and fire services the almost the entire army joined the in with the emergency recover after the earthquake but all this service was still not enough. Medical/ambulance recovery was very lacklustre as it sometimes is in a earthquake as hospitals were damaged and some destroyed making it a lot harder to help. They were also overflowed considering how small and in-wealthy the country is and how big its population is. In source 1 you can see patients being treated outside as they were evacuated from the hospitals.
Source 1
4.2 Organisations That Assisted After The Earthquake
The earthquake recovery was assisted by many organisations and countries such as India who was one of the first countries to respond (within 15 minutes of the earthquake) by starting a full rescue relief operation. It included medical aid and search and rescue. India also sent tents and food to help. Organisations such as the Red Cross and Oxfam just to name a few help up with the relief sending over supplies such as water, food, clothing, help sanitise water and helped raise money for the cause. Other organisations such as Doctors Without Borders helped a lot with medical support and care for the hurt victims of the earthquake. Lots of money was raised and put into the aid of Nepal by all different countries and organisations, USAID alone contribute $130 million USD