Nepal Is At Risk From Another Big Earthquake

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Surprisingly few buildings actually toppled in Kathmandu, and now we think we know why. think4photop/Shutterstock.

When an earthquake hit Nepal on April 25, known as the Gorkha earthquake, entire villages were flattened, large buildings toppled in the capital Kathmandu, and over 9,000 people lost their lives. Geologist Jean-Philippe Avouac has been studying the region for over two decades, looking at how mountains are formed and earthquakes triggered. When he heard that a magnitude 7.8 earthquake had hit the country, he expected the death toll to be in the hundreds of thousands.