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A powerful aftershock that struck Nepal today ( May 12 ) has triggered fresh landslide on slopes already weakened by the April 25 temblor , experts say .
" We are gestate many , many more landslides , " engineering geologist Tom Dijkstra of the British Geological Survey told Live Science . " It ( Nepal ) definitely received a double whammy . "
Swayambhunath, west of Kathmandu, on May 1.
scientist from grouping in the United States and the United Kingdom have already mapped more than 3,000 landslides from orbiter range of a function since themagnitude-7.8 earthquake bump off Nepalin former April . Dijkstra said this earlier shaking primed the region ’s steep hillside for further rockfalls by loosen soil and rubble .
" There were eyewitness chronicle of orotund cracking that appear in side , " Dijkstra order . " There is now an inherent instability in the landscape . "
At least 37 people were killed in today ’s quake and more than 1,100 were offend , according to early news show reports . [ Nepal Earthquake photograph : Odd Effects of Kathmandu Temblor ]
Today ’s earthquake was centered well to the east of the former April 25 seism . However , the main earthquake , which begin nor'-west of Kathmandu , directed its energy to the east , so shaking from both temblor hit the same country twice . The Modern seism destruct houses and order near Mount Everest , but local officials said few tourist were still in the realm , theBBC report . Fresh rockfalls have also further hinder Nepal ’s main highways , include the Arniko Highway ( Frederick North to Tibet ) and the Prithvi Highway ( the elementary road from Kathmandu to India ) .
Today ’s magnitude-7.3 quake was an aftershock of the earlier April 25 Gorkhaearthquake , enunciate Gavin Hayes , a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey ( USGS ) in Golden , Colorado . " It is significantly low than the main event , " Hayes told Live Science . A magnitude-7.3 seism release about 5 times less vim than a magnitude 7.8 temblor . Both earthquake ruptured the Main Himalayan Thrust , Hayes say .
The aftershock appears to fill a " seismic gap . " It was centered between the easterly border of the patch that cause the April 25 Gorkha seism and a historic quake that struck in 1934 on the same fault .
The USGS had prefigure a less than 1 pct chance , or 1 - in-200 betting odds , of an earthquake of between magnitude 7 and magnitude 7.8 occurring this week . While bigger seism have more andlarger aftershocksthan modest seism , overall , the number of aftershocks decrease with sentence .
The potential for even enceinte earthquakes is extremely downcast , Hayes articulate . The USGS augur a 1 - in-1,000 chance of another earthquake as heavy as the April 25 shaker . " Social media seems to be spreading the rumor that a much declamatory result is look , but the chance is modest , " Hayes say .
However , the risk of infection of landslide will remain high-pitched in the coming months , even as the identification number of aftershock diminish . When the monsoon rains go far in June , slopes destabilized by the seism could activate Modern landslides .
" We are potential to have much more terrible consequences during the monsoon , " Dijkstra say .
