7.8 magnitude earthquake strikes Nepal

[Simfan34]

Accidentally deleted the thread. Death toll has been rapidly climbing, was 150 when I woke up, 1000 when I first posted it, and now 1,457. Not the biggest earthquake in the country's history though- a 8.3 magnitude one struck in 1934.

[Simfan34]

Kathmandu's historic Durbar Square, a World Heritage site, has been completely destroyed:

Before:


After:

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

The Dharara Tower has also been destroyed along with half the buildings in the capital.

Most of the camps of Mount Everest have been badly hit as well. Many climbers and Sherpas are stuck, or worse due to an earthquake induced Avalanche.

[Nhoj]

Not sure I would bother with putting the death toll in the title at this point. Its probably gonna go way up. I believe the last article i saw said they hadn't even reached areas in the epicenter.

[Citizen (The) Doctor]

RIP to the victims. I hope disaster relief is mobilizing quickly.

[Simfan34]

The Dharara Tower has also been destroyed along with half the buildings in the capital.

Most of the camps of Mount Everest have been badly hit as well. Many climbers and Sherpas are stuck, or worse due to an earthquake induced Avalanche.

Much of this was destroyed in the 1934 earthquake so I assume they'll rebuild again.

[afleitch]

Horrific. While the world must aid Nepal, it shouldn't leave a single footprint there.

[NewYorkExpress]

RIP to all of the victims.

There is much we don't know about earthquakes and volcanos, so if nothing else, may the tragedy allow us to shed more light on them.

[Simfan34]

According to a 1990s study I found an earthquake around the level of the 1934 quake could be expected to have a death toll of 18,000-20,000. So this is what we could expect, although I worry it will be far higher. I don't know how many buildings there are in Kathmandu but they estimated 53k would be destroyed while reports are saying half have been.

Meanwhile an advocacy group cites a study that claims:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Sounds disturbingly close to what has happened.

[Cranberry]

This is truly horrible. May any help that the people of Nepal could need come to them as swift as possible!

[Simfan34]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

http://www.lebret-irfed.org/spip.php?article787

!!!

[Simfan34]

This really doesn't sound good:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/experts-had-warned-for-decades-that-nepal-was-vulnerable-to-a-killer-quake/2015/04/25/0275959e-eb78-11e4-9a6a-c1ab95a0600b_story.html

[BaconBacon96]

Holy sh*t. That's tragic.

[Adam Griffin]

According to a 1990s study I found an earthquake around the level of the 1934 quake could be expected to have a death toll of 18,000-20,000. So this is what we could expect, although I worry it will be far higher. I don't know how many buildings there are in Kathmandu but they estimated 53k would be destroyed while reports are saying half have been.

Meanwhile an advocacy group cites a study that claims:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Sounds disturbingly close to what has happened.

They won't necessarily be similar in count. With magnitudes, there is a load of difference between even small variations in power. The amount of energy released in a 8.3 earthquake is 3.16 times that released in a 7.8. Even then, it also depends on where the epicenter was and how deep it occurred with respect to death counts.

[TDAS04]

This is truly horrible. May any help that the people of Nepal could need come to them as swift as possible!

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Even then, it also depends on where the epicenter was and how deep it occurred with respect to death counts.

Initial reports indicate it was shallow quake, a little less than 10 miles deep, which is bad.

[Adam Griffin]

In the wake of a massive earthquake, the aftershocks are often downplayed or "ignored", but it's worth mentioning that there have been 10 additional earthquakes today that have had magnitudes of 5.0 or greater, and at least that many with magnitudes of 4.5 to 5 - certainly not small ball, but perhaps unlikely to destroy a lot of what hasn't already been destroyed.

[Famous Mortimer]

Nepali Congress is in power right now. Hopefully they do a good job of crisis management, for the obvious reasons, and additionally because if they don't, the Maoists will be back in power.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Nepali Congress is in power right now. Hopefully they do a good job of crisis management, for the obvious reasons, and additionally because if they don't, the Maoists will be back in power.

Hopefully the different political factions can use this tragedy to put aside their differences and work together to lead Nepal to recovery, like what happened in Aceh province after the Boxing Day Tsunami.

[Silent Hunter]

Exactly; this is not the time for political point-scoring,

My prayers are with all the victims of this.

[t_host1]

Horrific. While the world must aid Nepal, it shouldn't leave a single footprint there.

 This is excellent news for the Clinton Global Initiative. The 85% Clinton take on this natural event
may not pan out as well as the Haiti disaster is, however, they'll be there to help themselves.  

[Famous Mortimer]

Exactly; this is not the time for political point-scoring,

My prayers are with all the victims of this.

but points will be scored regardless. I said, I hope the government does a good job "for the obvious reasons" I shouldn't have to say it but the obvious reasons are so that human suffering is minimized.

This is going to have a political impact though, no matter what happens.

[Boston Bread]

A relative of mine was actually travelling in Nepal (I didn't know until my mom told me). We got word today that he is safe thankfully.

[Gass3268]

This is all so horrific.

[Simfan34]

The death toll, at least, seems far below the figures I was quoting yesterday.