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Unlock This CourseThe spec asks for one detailed example of an earthquake in a named country. Ours is the April 2015 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal. We use ideas from What Happens at Each Plate Boundary, Impacts of Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions, Responses, Monitoring and Prediction and Protection, Planning and Technology. Here we apply them, not teach them again.
Location: Nepal is a small, mountainous country in South Asia, between India and China (Tibet). It was an LIC in 2015. The Himalayas, including Mount Everest, run along its northern border.
Named places to use in an answer: Gorkha district and the village of Barpak (near the epicentre), the capital Kathmandu, Dharahara tower, Durbar Square, Mount Everest and the Langtang valley.
25 April 2015, about midday: a magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes.
Same day: avalanches and landslides follow, and aftershocks begin.
12 May 2015: a magnitude 7.3 aftershock hits, close to the Chinese border.
June 2015: a donor conference in Kathmandu pledges about 4 billion US dollars.
Late 2015: the National Reconstruction Authority is set up to lead rebuilding.
The same collision built the Himalayas. Nepal has had big earthquakes before, such as the one in 1934, so this was a known risk.
| Type | Impacts |
|---|---|
| Social | About 9,000 people died and about 22,000 were injured. About 500,000 homes were destroyed and many more damaged, leaving millions of people without proper shelter. Schools, health posts and roads were damaged. Many villages in hill districts such as Gorkha and Sindhupalchok were almost flattened. |
| Economic | Damage and loss came to about 7 billion US dollars, about a third of Nepal's yearly GDP. Farmland, homes and shops were lost. Tourism, a major earner, fell by about a third in 2015, because trekking routes and hotels were damaged and visitors stayed away. |
| Environmental | Thousands of landslides (about 4,000) blocked rivers and roads. Villages in the Langtang valley were buried by an avalanche and landslide, and about 300 people died or went missing. Rock and snow shaken loose damaged mountain slopes and water sources. |
Strategies are the action plans. Techniques are the methods used.
| Strategy | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Building codes | A national building code, drafted in the 1990s and made mandatory in towns in 2003, sets rules for strong foundations and steel-reinforced concrete. After 2015, new homes in the grant scheme had to follow earthquake-resistant designs. |
| Retrofitting schools | Since 1997 the charity NSET (National Society for Earthquake Technology) has strengthened school buildings, using extra walls and stronger frames. About 300 schools had been retrofitted by 2015, and none of them collapsed. |
| Training and drills | Masons are trained to build safely. Schools run drills such as 'Drop, Cover and Hold' and Nepal marks a National Earthquake Safety Day each January. |
Sustainable here means protection that lasts and that people in Nepal can afford and keep up themselves. Training local masons and using local materials fits this best.
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|
| Retrofitted schools did not collapse. The quake struck on a Saturday, so schools were empty, but safer schools protect children in future. Large international help arrived quickly. A single authority led rebuilding, with money going directly to families. | Most buildings were not built to a code, especially in villages, and the code was weakly enforced. Rebuilding was slow, with many families still in temporary shelters years later. Remote places were hard to reach. Poor families could not always afford to rebuild safely. |
Judgement: the response saved lives and the 2015 earthquake led to stronger planning, but building codes were not enforced widely enough before the disaster. In an exam answer, give figures, named places and a balanced judgement.
Study the Gorkha earthquake in Nepal in 2015.
(a) State the magnitude of the earthquake. [1 mark]
(b) Explain why the focus depth made the damage worse. [2 marks]
(c) Describe two environmental impacts of the earthquake. [2 marks]
(d) Evaluate how far the strategies and techniques used in Nepal have managed the impacts of earthquakes. [6 marks]
(a) About 7.8 (1).
(b) The focus was shallow, at about 8 km (1), so the seismic waves had little distance to lose energy before reaching the surface, and the shaking was stronger (1).
(c) Thousands of landslides blocked rivers and roads (1). An avalanche and landslide buried part of the Langtang valley (1).
(d) Level 3 (5-6 marks): Nepal used building codes, retrofitting of schools and training (1). The retrofitting of about 300 schools worked well, because none of them collapsed (1). Training local masons is cheap and sustainable because people can keep using the skills (1). However, the code was weakly enforced in villages, and about 500,000 homes were destroyed, so many buildings were still unsafe (1). Rebuilding led by the National Reconstruction Authority was slow and poorer families struggled to afford safe homes (1). Overall, management was partly successful: it protected some buildings and children, but not enough homes, and about 9,000 people still died (1).
For a six-mark evaluation, include a named place, a figure with 'about', a strength, a weakness and a final judgement.