BIG quake coming in NOW - Nepal -April 25, 2015

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In summary, there was a 7.9 magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal, killing 906 people. The quake was felt in many cities in India, and was expected to cause another earthquake.
  • #1
davenn
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  • #2
Some people near my place felt the earthquake.
 
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  • #3
where are they located ?
 
  • #4
Cool hobby you have, Dave.
 
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  • #5
its quite exciting when I see the big signals coming in
but its tainted with the knowledge that if the quake is on land or near the coast, there is probably dire consequences :frown:
 
  • #6
OK a couple of seismograms ...

The first one is a raw screen dump taken just prior to the trace overwriting itself

150425 0611UT M7.8 Himalayas, cntrl Nepal zhi.GIF


this second one is the processed version with the quake info data added ( timing, depth, location etc)

150425.062113.zhi.gif


you can see at the around the 0657 time area that the surface waves were overloading the 16 bit analog to digital converter

cheers
Dave
 
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  • #7
Nepal quake: Hundreds dead, history crumbles, Everest shaken
http://news.yahoo.com/strong-earthquake-felt-nepals-capital-063242616.html [Broken]
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A powerful earthquake struck Nepal Saturday, killing at least 906 people across a swath of four countries as the violently shaking Earth collapsed houses, leveled centuries-old temples and triggered avalanches on Mt. Everest. It was the worst tremor to hit the poor South Asian nation in over 80 years.

Related Stories
  1. http://news.yahoo.com/avalanche-sweeps-everest-nepal-30-injured-101133601.html [Broken] Associated Press
  2. Quake triggers Everest avalanche, 10 killed Reuters
  3. Devastating Nepal quake kills over 900, some in Everest avalanche Reuters
At least 876 people were confirmed dead in Nepal, according to the police. Another 20 were killed in India, six in Tibet and two in Bangladesh. Two Chinese citizens died at the Nepal-China border. The death toll is almost certain to rise, said deputy Inspector General of Police Komal Singh Bam.

"Our village has been almost wiped out. Most of the houses are either buried by landslide or damaged by shaking," said Vim Tamang, a resident of Manglung village near the epicenter. He said half of the village folks are either missing or dead.
M7.8 - 34km ESE of Lamjung, Nepal
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20002926#general_summary

M6.6 - 49km E of Lamjung, Nepal
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us2000292y#general_summary

There is a swarm of quakes in the 4-5 mag range east of the major quake. Earthquakes are near Nagarkot, Banepa, Panaoti and Kodari.
 
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  • #8
It is a curious coincidence that this massive earthquake is almost directly antipodal to the massive Calbuco volcanic eruption that began Wednesday afternoon.
 
  • #9
Davenn said:
where are they located ?
My place is approx. 3500km from nepal. The tremors were felt in many cities in india. They were expecting a second one.
 
  • #10
AdityaDev said:
My place is approx. 3500km from nepal. The tremors were felt in many cities in india. They were expecting a second one.
I hope that you and you loved ones are safe.
 
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  • #13
Dotini said:
It is a curious coincidence that this massive earthquake is almost directly antipodal to the massive Calbuco volcanic eruption that began Wednesday afternoon.
That depends on your definition of "directly". Katmandu is 27 deg north, Calbuco is 41 deg south; Katmandu is 81 East, Calbuco is 73 west. By my definition that is not even close.
Cheers
 
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  • #14
The most troubling thought in the minds of those affected by this disaster is the lingering fear of another deadly earthquake being round the corner. These kind of events not only cause physical damage, but mentally scar the survivors very deeply as well. The psychological implications are sometimes short termed and lethal - for example, in the 1994 Los Angeles earthquake, a significant portion of deaths were because of cardiac arrests from fright during the earthquake, and not from its after effects. In other cases, the effects are slow and poisonous, eating away at their victims all their lives. Living in dread and sorrow is truly the most terrible way to live indeed. May those subject to this tragedy find solace, and those who have departed from this world eternal tranquility.
 
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  • #15
Fascinating images coming in from the ESA.

NEPAL EARTHQUAKE

Nepal_earthquake_node_full_image_2.jpg

Released 29/04/2015 4:50 pm

Description: Combining two Sentinel-1A radar scans from 17 and 29 April 2015, this interferogram shows changes on the ground that occurred during the 25 April earthquake that struck Nepal. An overall area of 120x100 km has moved – half of that uplifted and the other half, north of Kathmandu subsided. Vertical accuracy is a few cm.
 
  • #16
Has anyone heard or read if Everest changed height at all?
 
  • #17
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  • #18
Dotini said:
It is a curious coincidence that this massive earthquake is almost directly antipodal to the massive Calbuco volcanic eruption that began Wednesday afternoon.

Also, coincidentally:
Researchers think Axial Seamount off Northwest coast is erupting – right on schedule
04/30/2015
...
Since last Friday [ April 24th! ], the region has experienced thousands of tiny earthquakes – a sign that magma is moving toward the surface – and the seafloor dropped by 2.4 meters, or nearly eight feet, also a sign of magma being withdrawn from a reservoir beneath the summit. Instrumentation recording the activity is part of the NSF-funded Ocean Observatories Initiative. William Wilcock of the University of Washington first observed the earthquakes.
...
located: 46.06°N 130°W

cpscdave said:
Has anyone heard or read if Everest changed height at all?

Mount Everest Shrank As Nepal Quake Lifted Kathmandu
by Becky Oskin, Senior Writer | April 29, 2015 10:13pm ET
...
The radar images reveal that some of the world's tallest peaks — including Mount Everest — dropped by about 1 inch (2.5 cm), according to the nonprofit UNAVCO, a geoscience research consortium.
...

But the article continues, and states that the Himalayas are rising about 0.4 inches (1 cm) per year, so a 1 inch drop is pretty insignificant, IMHO.
 
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  • #19
The ionosphere is very sensitive to solar storms. Turns out, it can be sensitive to earthquakes, too. NASA is reporting that the magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Nepal on April 25th created waves of energy that penetrated the ionosphere and disturbed the distribution of electrons. Note the wave pattern, circled, in the upper panel of this ionospheric electron density plot:

GPS Data Show How Nepal Quake Disturbed Earth’s Upper Atmosphere

nepalquakeionosphere20150501.jpg


The bottom panel of the plot is a "dynamic spectrum." Note the hot spots outlined in black. They show that the ionosphere was ringing with periods of ~2 and ~8 minutes. Presumably, these "tones" are related to atmospheric pressure waves billowing up from the trembling Earth below.

http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/gps-data-show-how-nepal-quake-disturbed-earth-s-upper-atmosphere
 
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  • #20
Another large quake in Nepal, M 7.3, located around 150 km east of the M 7.8 last month
I don't think it would be correct to call this an aftershock of the 7.8, as it lies well outside the aftershock zone of that event

http://www.sydneystormcity.com/seismograms.htm

150512 0705UT M7.3 estrn Nepal zhi.gif


It would be much more likely and better to call this a new event, but induced by the changed stress field in the region after the 7.8 Knowledge of these changing stress fields in fault lines after quakes is not new, They came to prominence particularly after the M 6.7 Northridge, California quake of Jan 1994, where remote imaging from satellites clearly showed how the new stresses had moved to the regions beyond either end of the rupture zone. Nothing has happened in those regions in the last 20 years and one would assume ( sometimes a bad thing) that existing stresses plus the addition stress is not enough to cause a new rupture yet.

Considering the large size of the event last month and the relatively rare occurrence of suck events in this region, it would be easy to conclude that significant stresses in the plate boundary along the Himalayan front have been building for a long period of time, 100+ years. And that, unlike the Northridge situation, it didn't take too much more change in the stress field to the east of the 7.8 to tip the balance and allow this M 7.3 to occur.

It will be interesting to see in time if studies are done of these events by the USGS or universities, if they show the changes happening in the region

Regards
Dave
 
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  • #21
I would expect that this quake is a separate event, but on the same system.
M7.3 - 18km SE of Kodari, Nepal
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20002ejl#general_summary

2015-05-12 07:05:19 (UTC),
Lat/Long = 27.837°N / 86.077°E
depth=15.0 km (9.3 mi) - that's relatively shallow and would produce a lot of ground motion.

Nearby Cities
  1. 18km (11mi) SE of Kodari, Nepal
  2. 59km (37mi) ENE of Banepa, Nepal
  3. 62km (39mi) ENE of Panaoti, Nepal
  4. 76km (47mi) ENE of Kathmandu, Nepal
  5. 77km (48mi) ENE of Patan, Nepal

M6.3 - 33km NNE of Ramechhap, Nepal
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20002ek5#general_summary
2015-05-12 07:36:53 (UTC)
Lat/Long = 27.618°N / 86.166°E
depth=15.0 km (9.3 mi) - also fairly shallow

Nearby Cities
  1. 33km (21mi) NNE of Ramechhap, Nepal
  2. 63km (39mi) E of Banepa, Nepal
  3. 64km (40mi) E of Panaoti, Nepal
  4. 83km (52mi) E of Kathmandu, Nepal
  5. 84km (52mi) E of Patan, Nepal

The 7.8 Mag earthquake (77km (48mi) NW of Kathmandu, Nepal) was also shallow at 15 km.
 
  • #22
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/68501430/nepal-hit-by-73-earthquake-41-dead

A magnitude 7.3 quake has struck the Nepal-Tibet border, killing more than 41 people and leaving 1100 injured, as buildings weakened by a devastating quake less than three weeks ago collapsed.

The quake, which struck near the base camp for Everest, 22 kilometres south-east of Zham, China, and 83 kilometres east of Kathmandu, Nepal, was measured at a shallow depth of about 18.5km (revised from 10km).

It was felt as far away as New Delhi, India, and Dhaka in Bangladesh.

An initial magnitude of 7.4 was recorded before the earthquake was downgraded to 7.3. It struck about 7.30pm Tuesday NZT.

The Home Ministry increased the death toll to 41, with more than 1100 people injured.

The quake was quickly followed by aftershocks of 5.6, 5.4 and 6.3 magnitude within half an hour.
 
  • #23
It was at 7pm last night they had a clip on the Mt Everest avalanche -- http://www.3news.co.nz/tvshows/campbelllive/doctor-ignored-own-injuries-to-help-others-in-avalanche-2015051218?ref=video#axzz3ZxG6OTaA [Broken]
 
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  • #24
davenn said:
Another large quake in Nepal, M 7.3, located around 150 km east of the M 7.8 last month
Also, I created another thread for this, more focused on donations, here.
 
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  • #25
Here's an image of the earthquake locations today. The largest circle is the mag 7.3.

I'll add a list later.
 

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  • #26
USGS Research - The M7.8 Nepal Earthquake, 2015 – A Small Push to Mt. Everest
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/fy16-nepal2015/ [Broken]

On Saturday April 25 at 11:56am local time, an M7.8 earthquake began 82 km (51 mi) NW of Nepal’s capital of Kathmandu. The event was followed by many aftershocks, the largest being an M7.3 on May 12, 17 days after the mainshock. The toll included about 9000 fatalities, 23,000 injuries, more than 500,000 destroyed houses, and about 270,000 damaged houses.

The epicenter of the earthquake was west of the Kathmandu Valley, but the rupture propagated east towards the valley and the capital city of Kathmandu. The earthquake originated at a relatively shallow depth of 12-15 km (7.5-9.3 mi). The InSar data indicated that there was no surface rupture, either along a new trace or along known fault lines from previous earthquakes. Scientists subsequently confirmed this by conducting a field survey in the Kathmandu Valley. Field data and seismic data indicate that the 2015 fault rupture broke adjacent to the 1934 rupture, and it appears that a larger rupture occurred historically adjacent to the other end too. Scientists observed impressive ground fractures observed in Kausaltar, but they were the result of local site conditions and shaking, not tectonic displacement.

Shaking from the earthquake was felt in much of central Nepal, north India, west Bangladesh, and parts of Bhutan. The furthest reported shaking was in Kahuta, Pakistan. The intensity data show the shaking intensities in Kathmandu Valley were 6-7 on the 1998 European Macroseismic Scale (EMS-98). The distribution of shaking exceeded an intensity level of 8 only a few times.

There is some good graphics on the webpage.
 
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  • #27
Poor Nepal. They really don't need another one again.
 
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  • #28
Borg said:
Poor Nepal. They really don't need another one again.
And some are still recovering from the last one :frown:
 
  • #29
ProfuselyQuarky said:
And some are still recovering from the last one :frown:

you did realize Borg was responding to a year old post ? :wink:

I suspect Borg didn't realize that fact LOL

Actually that wasn't entirely true ... Astronuc has posted some new information about the quake of a year ago. Borg may then have thought that it was a new event, going by his responseDave
 
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  • #30
davenn said:
you did realize Borg was responding to a year old post ? :wink:

I suspect Borg didn't realize that fact LOL
Someone told me the other day that there was another earthquake. Now that I think about his tone when he said it, he was being sarcastic and I didn't know it. :eek:

Is this why I’m supposed to be paying attention to the news? Because ignorance will make yourself look ridiculous?? :smile::smile:
 
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  • #31
I added the date to the title, but perhaps I should have modified the title to avoid confusion.

I wanted to give an update on the research into that particular earthquake.
 
  • #32
davenn said:
Borg may then have thought that it was a new event, going by his response
Yes, I thought that it was a new event. I thought that I visited it by clicking a link in the Unanswered Threads section.
 

1. What caused the "BIG quake" in Nepal on April 25, 2015?

The "BIG quake" in Nepal on April 25, 2015 was caused by a powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale. This earthquake was the result of the Indian Plate pushing under the Eurasian Plate, which is a common occurrence in the region.

2. How often do earthquakes of this magnitude occur in Nepal?

Earthquakes of this magnitude do not occur frequently in Nepal. The last major earthquake in Nepal was in 1934, with a magnitude of 8.0. However, Nepal is located in a seismically active region and experiences smaller earthquakes more frequently.

3. Was there any warning or prediction for this earthquake?

No, there was no specific warning or prediction for this earthquake. While scientists can monitor and track seismic activity, it is impossible to predict exactly when and where an earthquake will occur.

4. What are the potential impacts of this earthquake?

This earthquake has caused widespread destruction and devastation in Nepal, including loss of life, damage to infrastructure, and displacement of thousands of people. The full extent of the impacts is still being assessed, but it is clear that the effects will be long-lasting.

5. Are there any ongoing efforts to help with the aftermath of this earthquake?

Yes, there are ongoing efforts from various organizations and governments to provide aid and support to those affected by the earthquake in Nepal. These efforts include search and rescue operations, providing food, shelter, and medical assistance, and working towards long-term recovery and rebuilding efforts.

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