living with earthquakes nepal

Question 1

nepal’s earthquake patterns

Answer 1

two 7-8Mw earthquakes every 40 years
1 8Mw+ every 80 years

Question 2

nepal’s tectonic setting

Answer 2

collision zone of Indo-Australian plate and Eurasian plate
valleys are full of soft sediment risking liquefaction

Question 3

when was the Gorkha earthquake?

Answer 3

25 April 2015

Question 4

Gorkha earthquakes

Answer 4

7.8 Mw
slip along main thrust fault in the collision zone
epicentre, 90km of Kathmandu
focus was 15km
51 aftershocks
tremors felt in china and india
landslides and avalanches

Question 5

social impacts of Gorkha earthquake

Answer 5

8800 killed
22000 injured
160 deaths in other countries
avalanches on everest killed 10 climbers
2.8 million people displaced form Kathmandu valley
473,000 houses destroyed
1 million people needed food assistance
increase in trafficking women to South Asian brothels
culturally important locations damaged incl UNESCO world heritage site Bhaktapur and the Dharaharo tower

Question 6

how did the social impacts of Gorkha earthquake vary depending on ethnic groups

Answer 6

lower-caste Tibeto-Burman hardest hit as they tended to live on highest slopes in the Himalayas as these locations were severely affected by landslides and difficult to get aid to
single women disadvantaged and struggled to obtain aid as it was controlled by men and women were commonly discriminated against

Question 7

economic impacts of Ghorka earthquake

Answer 7

One of the poorest countries in the world and 2015 earthquake damaged economy
cost $10 billion
tourism was badly hit, everest closed - 10% of economy
Asian Development Bank provided $200 million of aid for reconstruction
gov, businesses and individuals lacked capital reserves to cope with the scale of damage caused by the Ghorka earthquake
levels of debt increased
dsirupted planting season before monsoon - reduced food security

Question 8

political impact of Ghorka earthquake

Answer 8

politically unstable before earthquake, but had been showing signs of becoming more stable
earthquake undermined this progress towards democracy
received emergency aid for long term reconstruction including EDCs LIDCs and ACs
Indonesia sent military aircraft and personnel
created tension with India, accused of trying to use its humanitarian aid as a form of self-promotion