Himalayan Regions Rocked by Earthquake
Heavy rain and thick cloud cover and numerous landslides hamper rescue efforts in the Himalayan regions of India, Nepal, and Tibet hard hit by a magnitude-6.9 earthquake on September 18. The epicenter was in the northern Indian state of Sikkim, where thousands of buildings collapsed and more than 65 people are known to be dead. At least 17 people die in landslides at a hydroelectric plant under construction. The damage is also widespread in Nepal and Tibet, where at least 25 people are reported killed. “The earthquake has loosened the hill faces, and when it rains, it causes landslides. So the situation is still very dangerous,” reports Deepak Pandey, a spokesman for the Indo-Tibetan border police.
The quake occurred at the boundary between two of the tectonic plates that make up Earth’s outer surface. There, the Indian-Australian Plate is pushing beneath the Eurasian Plate. About 45 million years ago, a plate that includes what is now the country of India collided with the southern edge of the Eurasian Plate, which includes Europe and most of Asia. The Indian-Australian Plate caused rock in the Eurasian Plate to crumple and fold. Over millions of years, the Himalaya, the world’s highest mountain system, was formed.
Additional World Book articles:
- Plate tectonics
- Seismology
- When the Earth Moves (special report)