7.8 Quake in Nepal Saturday

[JAE]

Some links and photos:

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/04/25/nepal-earthquake/

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-04-25-13-34-17

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/25/asia/nepal-earthquake-7-5-magnitude/index.html

Photos:

http://www.foxnews.com/world/slides...l-at-least-101-reported-dead/#/slide/nequake1

Looks like an avalanche hit the area betwween the ice fields and Everest Base Camp sweeping some of the base camp tents away.

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[WWTEng]

I wonder if they have a working building code there. Pakistan had a huge earthquake a few years ago (80,000 + casualties) and USAID helped them in coming up with a building code. But basically they modified UBC 97 from what I understand.

 

[racookpe1978]

Many tens of thousands of sq miles of "nothing" up there to regulate or attach a building code to.

 

[racookpe1978]

Good map here.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/tectonic/images/himalaya_tsum.pdf

Very, very sobering list of recent bad earthquakes across the region here:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20002926#general_summary

 

[MacGruber22]

That is where many of our U.S. garment companies have their manufacturing situated, isn't it? They were having issues with collapsing buildings without earthquakes...

"It is imperative Cunth doesn't get his hands on those codes."

 

[hokie66]

MacGruber,
You are probably thinking of nearby Bangladesh, which also felt this earthquake.

Many of the buildings in the Nepalese cities were destroyed in the 1934 earthquake, so a lot of building has occurred since then. But it is a very poor country which still depends on agriculture, and now tourism. The built environment is of poor quality, mostly unreinforced masonry and wood, not at all well tied together.

 

[GregLocock]

Wages are about 2 dollars a day on average, they have higher priorities than building codes.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[JAE]

In the few photos I saw there was a lot of loose masonry bricks or blocks. No dangling reinforcement at all.

One of the buildings appeared to be a large concrete slab system of some type in which the columns or bearing walls had buckled away.

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[IRstuff]

Interesting that the USGS map does not specifically label Tibet.

TTFN
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[hokie66]

Tibet these days is not a country, but rather an autonomous region of China, at least according to the Chinese.

 

[JAE]

And a 6.7 aftershock followed.

Here's a quote from a news article:

[red]Outside of the oldest neighborhoods, many in Kathmandu were surprised by how few modern structures collapsed in the quake.
The city is largely a collection of small, poorly constructed brick apartment buildings.

While aid workers cautioned that many buildings could have sustained serious structural damage,
it was also clear that the death toll would have been far higher had more buildings caved in.[/red]

So some "modern" buildings there did OK, which is good news in that it suggests our more modern ways of creating seismic resisting buildings has validity.
(that of course is supposing that these modern buildings they are referring to have specific seismic detailing inherent in them).


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[hokie66]

It was known that a big one would come at some stage, but what do you do?

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/0...erts-gathered-in-nepal-week-ago-to-ready-for/

 

[msquared48]

Prepare as best you can for total destruction, which is not saying much.

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA)

 

[racookpe1978]

Has anyone made an estimate for the area "raised" in elevation yet?

The Indian plate is bending down under the original Himalayan plate and Tibet plateau - which causes the mountains to rise of course, but do they know much of a bump over what area this earthquake represents in physical movement?

 

[JAE]

Here are some drone views of Nepal post-earthquake:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMkRPWv4M8Y

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