One of the latest headlines in the news covered the story of the ginormous earthquake in Nepal.
Nepal is popular for the the Himalaya Mountains, which offer long hiking trails. Mountaineering travelers remember Nepal as home of highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest.
"Western travelers are advised by their governments to exercise a high degree of caution due to the volatile political and security situation. Strikes and violent clashes between demonstrators and security forces occur frequently." ( http://www.worldatlas.com/)
The kingdom of Nepal's capital city is Kathmandu, with a population of 1,006,656. Nepal's total population is 30,430,267.
This small, vacation destination suffers from earthquakes.
An earthquake, quake, or tremor is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust. The energy creates seismic waves. Seismic activity is defined as the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time.
"At the Earth's surface, earthquakes manifest themselves by shaking and sometimes displacement of the ground. When the epicenter of a large earthquake is located offshore, the seabed may be displaced sufficiently to cause a tsunami. Earthquakes can also trigger landslides, and occasionally volcanic activity." (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake)
On a quiet saturday of April, 2015, a terrible earthquake took place as the latest result of an ongoing collision of giant pieces of our planet. This slow-moving disaster started about 50 million years ago.
We looked at the Tectonic summary. The quake's magnitude was 7.8. The location was 34 km ESE of Lamjung, Nepal. The M 7.8 Nepal earthquake occurred as the result of thrust faulting. The faulting took place around the the subducting India plate and the overriding Eurasia plate to the north. Simultaneously, 80 km to the northwest of the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu, the India plate was converging with Eurasia at a rate of 45 mm/yr towards the NNE, driving the uplift of the Himalayan mountain range.
"The preliminary location, size and focal mechanism of the April 25 earthquake are consistent with its occurrence on the main subduction thrust interface between the India and Eurasia plates (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20002926#general_summary)."
In Kathmandu, more than 4,600 people were dead. Over 9,000 were injured. Eight million were affected across Nepal. Over one million children were urgently in need of help.
The Nepalese, Himalayan nation was ruined on Saturday.
The results were flabbergasting:
-rescuers were everywhere
-the earth was sore
-the trekking association found 200 more unaccounted for
-that moment at 4:15 pm was everlasting
-aid was on hold in some hard to reach areas
-last respects were paid
-piles of wood were set to burn dead bodies
-as part of Hindu cremation ceremonies, heads were shaven to morn parentless children
-sons said goodbye to their mothers for the last time
-the unthinkable had taken place
-new homeless people were looking for places to sleep
-the military was setting up camps
-rain was coming
-everyone stuck outside had to deal with thunder storms
-a few were found that had survived being buried under rubble
(www.cnn.com)
It was gruesome. The once quiet backpacking destination, home of the biggest mountain in the world, had to have a rude awaking by mother nature.
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