Green | September 19, 2011 | 17 comments

6.9 magnitude quake a "wake up call" for Nepal

source: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2011/0919/6.9-magnitude-quake-a-wake-up-ca...

Image
JanforGore
A magnitude-6.9 earthquake rattled most of Nepal Sunday, leaving at least six dead and some 24 seriously injured. The slow response to the quake puts a spotlight on Nepal’s dismal disaster preparedness record, despite a history of devastating earthquakes.

In Nepal, where seismologists have been warning that the region is due for “the big one,” people were relieved to read media reports that described the quake’s impact as relatively mild. The quake, centered in the Indian state of Sikkim, killed more than 50 people across India, Nepal, and Tibet.

“There is scant preparedness for a major quake,” says Suraj Shrestha, a civil engineer associated with National Society for Earthquake Technology – Nepal (NSET), a nongovernmental organization that seeks to build earthquake-safe communities in Nepal by 2020.

Nepal was fortunate because the epicenter was located far enough from major Nepalese cities to prevent more serious damage, Mr. Shrestha says.

Most of the country has been too busy focusing on how to respond to the Maoist insurgency that gripped the country for a decade until 2006. The country has yet to secure long-term peace.

The last time a major quake hit Nepal was in 1988. The magnitude-6.5 quake that hit the country then killed 721 people. Before that, the biggest recorded quake to strike the region was a magnitude-8.3 in 1934 that killed some 8,519 people, according to the government’s National Seismological Center.

Nepal introduced quake-resistant building code for the first time in 2003. But the code covers only a handful of cities, including the capital, Kathmandu. The code was the government’s response to the 1988 quake.

“Enforcement of the code remains very poor,” Shrestha says.

According to an estimate by the NSET, some 80 percent of the buildings in the country are not earthquake resistant.

“The risk is high. Yesterday’s quake was a wake-up call,” added Shrestha, who says he hopes the quake will lead to more stringent enforcement of building codes.

More at the link
  1. groups:
    Green,   Culture,   Earth and Science,   Earth Care,   3 more
  2. tags:
    Environment,  Earth,  Natural Disasters,  Earthquakes,  3 more
  3.     
    |

17 comments // 6.9 magnitude quake a "wake up call" for Nepal

  • EmperorThan
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • EmperorThan:

      Do not let your heart be troubled they'll be resurrected soon into a restored Planet Earth under the new administration by the "kingdom of the heavens" Jesus told us to pray for, for it to come. It will do on a worldwide scale the raising of the dead Jesus showed he could do while on earth.

      At that time all these ones who have died in the Haiti quake and since will find they were blessed to be killed on this side so they could be brought back on the other side, skipping all this Save the Clock Tower junk we're having to suffer through.

      For a short while yet.

    • 8 months ago
  • JanforGore
  • squarethecircle
  • Gravity_Man
    • +1
      Gravity_Man  
    • squarethecircle:

      Perhaps they named in during BETTER DAYS. Altho I was reading up about how Tea Tree Oil was discovered the leaves fell into a hot water spot and made people healthy to bathe there. So the other night when too many caffeine-stuffed diet pills purged the Lyme's out of hiding and they attacked my heart I wasn't long finding some in a hot bath. Heat opens the pores to let in the healing.

      I was desperate. Dying has that effect on me. My heart was racing like a steeplechase with National Velvet, or something wait, Elizabeth Taylor. It only lasted about 30 hours on & off, with a few crash breaks sitting up. HAHAHAHA

      The 4 aspirin helped kill the Lyme's. It's in the tissues not in the bloodstream so much, so they say. Aspirin's Salicylic Acid can be right Killer. HAHAHAHA I fight to win. Several glasses of diatomaceous earth later I was weak but I was breathing on my own again. HAHAHAHA

      I slay me. The world's best doctors can't cure Lyme's and I destroyed a major Lyme's attack. ya hafta get MEAN. HAHAHAHA

    • 8 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • Image

    • I'm honored to say that someone in Nepal visited my website yesterday. www.newpath4.com touches on many topics but the Ocean Energy video in the top right may have been on their mind... at least to see someone "out here" knows a much better way to supply this world with electric service.

      I hope they make it over there.

    • 8 months ago
  • jackshin
    • +1
      jackshin  

    • didn't bush, or obama cut back on earthquake research...there is an awlful lot of quakes happening around the world. I wonder if Perry believes in earthquakes.

    • 8 months ago
  • squarethecircle
  • jackshin
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  
    • Image

    • http://chimalaya.org/2010/12/20/damming-north-east-india-juggernaut-of-hydropowe...

      This region is inundated with plans for dam projects, mainly in indigenous areas where cultures and environments have been sacrificed while people live in poverty. 168 hydroelectric dam projects here alone. Is there then a risk of earthquake from this? Some scientists think so:

      http://www.internationalrivers.org/node/3845

      Earthquakes can be induced by dams. Globally, there are over 100 identified cases of earthquakes that scientists believe were triggered by reservoirs (see Gupta 2002). The most serious case may be the 7.9-magnitude Sichuan earthquake in May 2008, which killed an estimated 80,000 people and has been linked to the construction of the Zipingpu Dam.

      How Do Dams Trigger Earthquakes?

      In a paper prepared for the World Commission on Dams, Dr. V. P Jauhari wrote the following about this phenomenon, known as Reservoir-Induced Seismicity (RIS): "The most widely accepted explanation of how dams cause earthquakes is related to the extra water pressure created in the micro-cracks and fissures in the ground under and near a reservoir. When the pressure of the water in the rocks increases, it acts to lubricate faults which are already under tectonic strain, but are prevented from slipping by the friction of the rock surfaces."

      Given that every dam site has unique geological characteristics, it is not possible to accurately predict when and where earthquakes will occur. However, the International Commission on Large Dams recommends that RIS should be considered for reservoirs deeper than 100 meters.

      What Are Some Characteristics of RIS?

      A leading scholar on this topic, Harsh K. Gupta, summarized his findings on RIS worldwide in 2002:

      Depth of the reservoir is the most important factor, but the volume of water also plays a significant role in triggering earthquakes.

      RIS can be immediately noticed during filling periods of reservoirs.
      RIS can happen immediately after the filling of a reservoir or after a certain time lag.
      Many dams are being built in seismically active regions, including the Himalayas, Southwest China, Iran, Turkey, and Chile (see map). International Rivers calls for a moratorium on the construction of high dams in earthquake-prone areas.

    • 8 months ago
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  
    • Image

    • http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44568554/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

      Rescuers Race To Reach Survivors
      GAUHATI, India — Rescue workers raced Monday to clear roads blocked by mudslides as they scrambled to reach remote villages cut off after a powerful earthquake killed at least 50 people in northeast India, Nepal and Tibet.

      Hundreds of paramilitary soldiers and local police working through the night cleared away concrete slabs, bricks and mud to rescue scores of people trapped under the debris of houses that collapsed after a 6.9-magnitude quake struck the mountainous Himalayan region Sunday evening.

      At least 25 people died in the northeastern Indian state of Sikkim, where the quake was centered near India's border with Nepal, police said.

      "The situation doesn't look good," an official from the U.N.'s disaster management team in New Delhi told Reuters. "My feeling is the death toll and number of injured are going to increase."

      Paramilitary soldiers had pulled out 18 bodies and had located seven others buried under mounds of concrete in Gangtok, Sikkim's capital, said police Chief Jasbir Singh. At least 50 people, some of them with serious injuries, were hospitalized, he said.

      "People are still panicky," Pawan Thapa, a resident of Gangtok, told Reuters by phone. "We spent the whole night outside our homes."

      Deaths in Nepal, Tibet

      Another 11 people were killed the neighboring Indian states of Bihar and West Bengal. Seven people died in Nepal and China's official Xinhua news agency reported seven deaths from Tibet.

      Most of the deaths occurred when houses, already weakened from recent monsoon rains, collapsed due to the force of the quake.

      Heavy rains and landslides hampered rescuers as they worked through the night to pull people from under the rubble, Singh said.

    • 8 months ago
  • JanforGore
more from Green:
from the community

top videos