Discussion for article #235670
This is a terrible tragedy. But it was not unexpected. Scientists have been saying “the big one” was on it’s way for decades. And now it has happened.
I hope the US will be sending aid and first responders ASAP.
Unfortunately it will be a challenge getting relief supplies to the area. There are only 3 roads into the capital, and they are most likely blocked by landslides. I dont know if they will be able to provide relief by air as weather conditions are marginal. I hope the death toll is not as high as some are predicting (10,000 to as many as 100,000)
Interesting, the Richter scale is no longer in use, since the 70’s they use the MMS scale, which gives very similar results in the middle ranges. But the Richter scale was inaccurate for very large, distant earthquakes.
“Unlike other scales, the moment magnitude scale does not saturate at the upper end; there is no upper limit to the possible measurable magnitudes. However, this has the side-effect that the scales diverge for smaller earthquakes.”
They used to say that the Richter scale ended at 8, but now we can go as high as we want. I think 8 is OK though.
This quake struck between Kathmandu and Pokhara ( that city is west of Kathmandu) and was very shallow. Hence the ground movements were that much greater. 7.8 is a VERY powerful quake. This quake was strongly felt on surrounding countries (India, Tibet, China, and likely Pakistan as well). It’'s the strongest quake in 80 or more years and has done terrible damage and killed thousands of people. And Nepal is not a wealthy country.
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I got this app on my phone that alerts me on quakes over 6, the bigger the quake the longer it buzzes. My phone started freaking out and I had a very bad feeling. Such a remote area. Sometimes all you can do is pray.