Kathmandu: Nepal was shaken in the wee hours of Saturday as a 4.8 magnitude earthquake struck the Himalayan nation with the epicentre reported near the Pandusain village of Baju district in northwestern region, the National Center for Seismology said.
The earthquake struck at around 3.59 am (Indian Standard Time) at a depth of 10 km at the epicentre and at the coordinates — latitude 29.17 north and longitude 81.59 east, it added.
No casualties or loss to infrastructure has been reported yet.
Earthquakes in Nepal
According to Nepal’s National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET), the majority of earthquakes take place along the regions bordering the Pacific Ocean, known as the circum-Pacific belt, as well as the Alpine belt, which stretches across the East Indies, the Himalayas, Iran, Turkey, and the Balkans. Around 95 per cent of earthquake activity happens at the boundaries of tectonic plates.
The NSET states that Nepal is highly prone to seismic activity, facing significant earthquake risk. Historical records indicate that Nepal can expect two earthquakes with magnitudes between 7.5 and 8 on the Richter scale every 40 years, and one earthquake of magnitude 8 approximately every 80 years.
