A massive underground faultline that ruptured last year, causing a killer earthquake in Nepal, is still under tremendous strain underneath Kathmandu.
This meant another major tremor could happen in an area home to more than 1 million people within years or decades rather than the centuries that typically elapse between quakes, researchers wrote in the journal Nature Geoscience.
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The study is the latest to warn of the risk of another major quake around Nepal’s Gorkha district, near the epicentre of a 7.8-magnitude tremor on 25 April – the worst in Nepal in more than 80 years. It was followed on May 12 by a 7.3-strong aftershock.
A study in the same journal warned just five months ago that last year’s tremors had only partially relieved stress on the length of the faultline, and said chances for a big tremor were as high as before.
The twin quakes killed more than 8,700 people, triggered landslides and destroyed 500,000 homes, leaving hundreds of thousands in need of food, clean water and shelter.