Description

The April 2015 Nepal earthquake killed 8,962 people and injured 21,952 across the countries of Nepal, India, China and Bangladesh. It occurred at 11:56 Nepal Standard Time on Saturday 25 April 2015, with a magnitude of Mw 7.8–7.9 or Ms 8.1 and a maximum Mercalli Intensity of X (Extreme). Its epicenter was east of Gorkha District at Barpak, Gorkha, roughly 85 km (53 mi) northwest of central Kathmandu, and its hypocenter was at a depth of approximately 8.2 km (5.1 mi). It was the worst natural disaster to strike Nepal since the 1934 Nepal–India earthquake. The ground motion recorded in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, was of low frequency, which, along with its occurrence at an hour when many people in rural areas were working outdoors, decreased the loss of human lives.