32 times more devastating earthquake to hit Nepal and India: Experts
New Delhi: In a shocking revelation, experts believe that a much stronger and more devastating earthquake will rock Nepal and India in the future.
“We know there is a huge amount of accumulated strain in this area. It is due for a major earthquake, perhaps a series of earthquakes, bigger than 8 on the Richter scale,” Harsh K Gupta, former director of the Hyderabad-based National Geophysical Research Institute, told Indian Express.
He further said that the amount of energy stored in the region was great and that the quake that rocked Nepal was only 5 per cent of the total energy stored.
An earthquake which is measured 9 on Richter scale is only 10 times stronger but has energy 32 times more than that of a 8 pointer.
According to senior scientist Sankar Kumar Nath of IIT Kharagpur, that quakes of magnitude 9 is a big possibility.
“If you look at it differently, we are actually lucky that only a 7.9-magnitude earthquake has come. I would be very happy to have a few 7.9-magnitude earthquakes than a 9-magnitude earthquake which would be absolute disaster. The trouble is that in terms of energy release, which is what causes the damage, it would take 40 to 50 earthquakes of magnitude 7.9 to avoid an earthquake of magnitude 9,” he told Indian Express.
More than 2 thousand people have been killed and over 5 thousand injured in an earthquake that rocked Nepal and northern India.
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