Quake, aftershocks hit Nepal, India shaken by tremors

The epicenter of the quake and three aftershocks is 18 km SE of Kodari in Nepal (about 60 km from Kathmandu), said Indian Meteorological Department director Laxman Singh Rathore.

He said there will be more aftershocks in the coming days.

Reports said the airport in Kathmandu has been shut down. Reports of some deaths too poured in from Nepal. A news channel reported four deaths so far. Reports of damages came from Sindhupalchok and Dolakha in Nepal.

After the 7.3 magnitude quake on Tuesday, the aftershocks felt were of 6.2, 5.4 and 4.8 magnitudes one after another.

In India the quake was not only felt in north and east, but also from Chennai in south India.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted: "News of an earthquake hitting Nepal again has come. Several parts of India also felt the tremors. MHA [Ministry of Home Affairs] is collecting more details and info."

He said the Indian NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) has been alerted. He urged all not to panic.

People in many places, like in Gurgaon of National Capital Region, rushed out of their homes and offices. In Siliguri in north Bengal people also rushed out of offices.

"I saw chunks of concrete falling off the building in which our office is located," said an employee in a Siliguri office.

In Bihar towns and like Gaya and Madhubani felt strong termors.

Sikkim in northeast, which also borders Nepal, also felt it strongly.

Nepal witnessed a massive earthquake on Apr 25 last, resulting in the death of over 8000 people.

According to US Geological Survey, seismicity in the Himalaya dominantly results from the continental collision of the India and Eurasia plates, which are converging at a relative rate of 40-50 mm/yr.

Northward underthrusting of India beneath Eurasia generates numerous earthquakes and consequently makes this area one of the most seismically hazardous regions on Earth. The surface expression of the plate boundary is marked by the foothills of the north-south trending Sulaiman Range in the west, the Indo-Burmese Arc in the east and the east-west trending Himalaya Front in the north of India.

The India-Eurasia plate boundary is a diffuse boundary, which in the region near the north of India, lies within the limits of the Indus-Tsangpo (also called the Yarlung-Zangbo) Suture to the north and the Main Frontal Thrust to the south.

The Indus-Tsangpo Suture Zone is located roughly 200 km north of the Himalaya Front and is defined by an exposed ophiolite chain along its southern margin.

The narrow (<200km) Himalaya Front includes numerous east-west trending, parallel structures. This region has the highest rates of seismicity and largest earthquakes in the Himalaya region, caused mainly by movement on thrust faults. Examples of significant earthquakes, in this densely populated region, caused by reverse slip movement include the 1934 M8.1 Bihar, the 1905 M7.5 Kangra and the 2005 M7.6 Kashmir earthquakes.

The latter two resulted in the highest death tolls for Himalaya earthquakes seen to date, together killing over 100,000 people and leaving millions homeless. The largest instrumentally recorded Himalaya earthquake occurred on 15th August 1950 in Assam, eastern India. This M8.6 right-lateral, strike-slip, earthquake was widely felt over a broad area of central Asia, causing extensive damage to villages in the epicentral region.