April 2015 Nepal earthquake
The April 2015 Nepal earthquake (also known as the Gorkha earthquake)[7][11] killed 8,962 people in Nepal and injured 21,952 more. It occurred at on Saturday 25 April 2015, with a magnitude of 7.8Mw[1] or 8.1Ms[12] and 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.[13][14][15] 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.[16]
This article is about the Nepal earthquake that took place on 25 April 2015. For the major aftershock on 12 May 2015, see May 2015 Nepal earthquake.
The earthquake triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest, killing 22 people,[17] the deadliest incident on the mountain on record.[18] The earthquake triggered another huge avalanche in the Langtang valley, where 250 people were reported missing.[19]
Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese were made homeless with entire villages flattened[19][20][21] 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.[22][23] 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.
Continued aftershocks occurred throughout Nepal at intervals of 15–20 minutes, with one shock reaching a magnitude of 6.7 on 26 April at NST.[6] The country also had a continued risk of landslides.[24]
A major aftershock occurred on 12 May 2015 at with a moment magnitude (Mw) of 7.3.[25] The epicenter was near the Chinese border between the capital of Kathmandu and Mount Everest.[26] More than 200 people were killed and over 2,500 were injured by this aftershock, and many were left homeless.[27]
Rescue and relief[edit]
About 90% of soldiers from the Nepalese Army were sent to the stricken areas in the aftermath of the earthquake under Operation Sankat Mochan, with volunteers mobilized from other parts of the country.[128] 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.[129] Survivors were found up to a week after the earthquake.[130][131][132]
As of 1 May international aid agencies like Médecins Sans Frontières and the Red Cross were able to start medically evacuating the critically wounded by helicopter from outlying areas, initially cut-off from the capital city, Kathmandu,[20] and treating others in mobile and makeshift facilities.[133][134] There was concern about epidemics due to the shortage of clean water, the makeshift nature of living conditions and the lack of toilets.[135]
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.[136]
Volunteers used crisis mapping to help plan emergency aid work.[137] 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.[138][139][140][141][142][143][144] Information was mapped from data input from social media, satellite pictures[145] and drones[137] of passable roads, collapsed houses, stranded, shelterless and starving people, who needed help, and from messages and contact details of people willing to help.[146] 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.[147]
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.[148]
India pledged to donate $1 billion in cash and materials to Nepal. India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said "I am happy to announce Government of India's pledge for Nepal's post-earthquake reconstruction of Nepali Rupees 10,000 crores, equivalent to one billion US dollars, one fourth of it as Grant." The International Conference on Nepal's Reconstruction has been organised by the Nepalese government to raise funds for rebuilding the country.[149]
Reports are also coming in of sub-standard relief materials and inedible food being sent to Nepal by many of the foreign aid agencies.[150][151]
A United States Marine Corps helicopter crashed on 12 May while involved in delivering relief supplies. The Bell UH-1Y Venom crashed at Charikot, roughly 45 miles (72 kilometres) east of Kathmandu. Two Nepalese soldiers and six American Marines died in the crash.[152]
Need-fulfillment application, Getmii, launched a special pilot version in partnership with the Red Cross to double daily blood donors at the Kathmandu donation center using the app.[153]
Imaging technologies such as satellites and smartphones, were instrumental to relief efforts in Nepal.[154] GLIMS, group of volunteer scientists from nine nations, were able to provide rapid, systematic mapping of the damaged area, allowing the investigation of earthquake-induced geo-hazard processes that provided information to relief and recovery officials on the same timeframe as those operations were occurring.[155]
Charities and Crowdfunding platforms received over $230 million in donations from support groups. The money was used to provide medical supplies, for reconstruction of damaged buildings including schools and hospitals, and building orphanages for the victims among other things.[156]