Nepal Case Study

• On 25 April 2015 Nepal was struck by an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale
• The epicentre was about 80km to the north-west of Nepal's capital Kathmandu in the foothills of the Himalayas
• This is a destructive plate margin where the Indo-Australian Plate is colliding with the Eurasian Plate at the rate of 45mm per year.
• The earthquake was very shallow, just 15km, below the surface. This resulted in very severe ground shaking and widespread landslides and avalanches, The earthquake caused damage hundreds of kilometres away in India, Tibet and Pakistan