Study: Nepal Could Be Due for Another Major Earthquake

The 7.8 earthquake that hit Nepal in April 2015 killed more than 8,000, moved the city 10 feet south, and crumbled innumerable buildings as if they were made of stale cake. Yet despite more than 100 aftershocks, there’s still enough pent-up energy below the ground to fuel another huge quake, according to a study in Nature Geoscience.

In the aftermath of the disaster, scientists rushed to the Himalayas to assess the situation. What they found was the quake didn’t create a visible tear in the earth’s surface. That was odd, given they thought the fault responsible had enough strain on it to cause nearly a dozen feet of ground-shift. That likely means there’s a great well of energy still pooled below the region, which future quakes can harvest with devastating consequences.