A fresh 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck 17km south of Kodari, Nepal, on Sunday morning triggering avalanches on Mt. Everest and raising fresh fears after Saturday’s 7.9 quake claimed thousands of lives.
The US Geological Survey reported the quake struck at 1:09pm local
time (7:09am GMT). The quake was followed by another tremor, of
magnitude of 5, less than 20 minutes later.
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EARTHQUAKE
The earthquake triggered an avalanche in the Himalayan Mountains,
as well as tremors in the Indian capital, New Delhi, more than
1000km away. The New Dehli Metro system has been halted to a
standstill. The Kathmandu Airport is reportedly closed after the
6.7 earthquake struck Sunday, with airspace shut down,
airlive.net reported.
Tens of thousands fled their homes in the Kathmandu Valley after
the 6.7 quake hit. Since Saturday’s tragic 7.9 earthquake, more
than 30 aftershocks have been recorded.
The new earthquake is ‘shallow’, at only 10k deep. Usually
smaller-depth shakes cause less damage, but sometimes, a quake
with a shallow center can cause more acute damage.
AP reported the tremor as a “major aftershock,” but
others observed that the sheer size of the shake constitutes it
as a second earthquake. People near the epicenter were yelling
and running for open ground, AP said.
There are so far no official reports of casualties or damage from
the latest quake.
MORE: #Kodari is
alpine village on China-Nepal border with recorded population
of 1600 in 2012 http://t.co/3ExhCMkg19 pic.twitter.com/pagJbAStgg
— RT (@RT_com) April
26, 2015
Romanian climber Alex Gavan tweeted that Sunday’s aftershock
triggered three avalanches.
Just another earthquaqe now. And another three small
avalanches. All good. Pfiu!!!
— Alex Gavan (@AlexGAVAN) April
26, 2015
“Another one, we have an aftershock right now, oh s***,”
Indian mountaineer Arjun Vajpai told Reuters in a phone call made
from the Mount Makula basecamp, located 12 miles (19km) from
Everest.
Aftershock @ 1pm! Horrible here in camp 1. Avalanches on 3
sides. C1 a tiny island. We worry about icefall team below..
Alive?
— Daniel Mazur (@danielmazur) April
26, 2015
Kodari, the closest town to the new earthquake, is an alpine
village on the China-Nepal border that had a recorded population
of 1600 in 2012.
“There is no way one can forecast the intensity of
aftershocks so people need to be alert for the next few
days,” India’s chief of the state-run weather service, LS
Rathore, told Reuters.
The 2,900km Himalaya Mountain range was created by the collision
of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates. The Indian plate is
still moving northward, making the region a hotbed of seismic
activity.
Sunday’s strong earthquake hit Nepal just as doctors and aid
packages arrived to the region to address the devastation from
Saturday’s quake, which has so far claimed more than 2,000 lives.
The 7.9 earthquake was the worst to hit the landlocked South
Asian nation in more than 80 years.