Environment
The Nepal Earthquake Moved the Whole City of Kathmandu 10 Feet
And it's not just the cities above a fault line that move as a result of the tectonic rupture.
Saturday's 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Nepal devastated Kathmandu and nearby areas, killing thousands. It also moved the city 10 feet south, according to experts.
Ten feet sounds quite dramatic, but for an earthquake of this magnitude, this sort of shift over the fault is pretty typical, says Yale seismologist Maureen Long. She explains that the magnitude of an earthquake is proportional to the area of the fault that ruptures times the amount of slip on the fault.