America
US experts warned about Nepal quake
Washington, April 26
US experts had warned for decades that Nepal was vulnerable to a quake that may take thousands of lives, media reported.
A
massive block of Earth's crust, roughly 120.7 km (75 miles) long and 37
miles wide, lurched 10 feet to the south on Saturday over the course of
30 seconds and riding atop this block of the planet was the capital of
Nepal, Kathmandu and millions of Nepalese, said Roger Bilham, a
world-renowned expert on Himalayan earthquakes.
The University
of Colorado geologist said the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that flattened
historic buildings in Kathmandu and has taken more than 2,400 lives is
the latest release of built-up strain from the collision of two of
Earth's tectonic plates, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.
The
Indian plate is inexorably sliding -- in a halting, ground-shaking
fashion -- northward, beneath the much larger Eurasian plate and the
process has created the lofty Tibetan plateau and pushed up mountains
that reach nearly 30,000 feet above sea level.
The Himalaya front
can produce much larger and powerful earthquakes than the one on
Saturday but this one was relatively shallow, which intensifies the
surface shaking, and its epicentre was closer to Kathmandu than the 1934
temblor.
Kathmandu has always been high on the list of cities most vulnerable to a catastrophic earthquake.
Geology,
urbanisation, architecture and building codes have increased the
vulnerability of the Nepalese, experts say, and the only major unknown
thing was the timing of the disaster, the report said.