DEATH TOLL
More
than 3,300 deaths have been confirmed, and the death toll is expected
to rise. At least 18 were killed and dozens more were injured on Mount Everest,
where the quake launched an avalanche. Dozens if not hundreds remain
trapped under mounds of rubble. The nation's capital of Katmandu was
particularly hard hit.
Outside Nepal, a total of at least 61 died in India, Bangladesh, China's region of Tibet and Pakistan.
LOCATION
The quake struck before noon local time about 50 miles northwest of Katmandu in an area that the U.S. Geological Survey calls one of the most seismically hazardous regions on Earth. It was felt as far away as Lahore, Pakistan; Lhasa, Tibet; and Dhaka, Bangladesh. Multiple aftershocks, including one registered at magnitude-6.7, followed.
SIZE
The quake registered as a magnitude-7.8. Although on a major plate boundary
with a history of large- to great-sized earthquakes, large earthquakes
in this area are rare in the documented historical era, the U.S.
Geological Survey reports. Over the past century, just four events of
magnitude-6.0 or larger have occurred within about 150 miles of
Saturday's earthquake.
the historic Dharahara Tower in Katmandu, Nepal. (Photo: Niranjan Shrestha, AP)
A
number of buildings collapsed in the center of the capital, the ancient
Old Kathmandu, including centuries-old temples and towers. Among them
was the Dharahara Tower,
one of Katmandu's landmarks built by Nepal's royal rulers in the 1800s
and a UNESCO-recognized historical monument. It was reduced to rubble
and there were reports of people trapped underneath.
The Katmandu Valley is densely populated with nearly 2.5 million people, and the quality of buildings is often poor.
WHAT NOW?
It will be awhile before we know the full extent of the damage and the final death toll. At
least 29 districts have been designated as crisis zones. Hospitals in
the capital have been overwhelmed. About 90% of the 1,000 homes in the
villages of Laprak and Barpak near the epicenter were destroyed
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