A massive 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck east of Pokhara in Nepal on Saturday, causing widespread damage to buildings in the capital Kathmandu, killing over 2,200 people and injuring over 4,500 people across the hilly nation. The Himalayan nation was hit by dozens of aftershocks on Saturday and Sunday as people sheltered where they could. Nepalese authorities continually revised the number of dead upwards a day after the Himalayan country was shaken by a magnitude 7.8 quake that wrecked houses, flattened centuries-old temples and triggered avalanches on Mount Everest.
Saturday's earthquake, which originated outside Kathmandu, was the worst to hit Nepal, a landlocked nation sandwiched between India and China, in more than 80 years. The quake destroyed the old, historic part of Kathmandu, and was strong enough to be felt all across the northern part of India, Bangladesh, China's region of Tibet and Pakistan.
Certainly the risk of earthquakes happeing in the Himalayas and north India is huge. There are numerous Indian cities that lie in high-risk seismic zones, because of the growing pressures of the subcontinent grinding into the Asian mainland.
Read this map to find out whether you are living in a earthquake prone city or not:
Earhquake prone Indian cities
Image sources: MapsOfIndia
Intensity Of Earthquakes In Different Zones
Seismic Zone -- Intensity on Modified Mercalli scale
Zone II (Low intensity zone) -- VI (or less)
Zone III (Moderate intensity zone) -- VII
Zone IV (Severe intensity zone) -- VIII
Zone V (Very severe intensity zone) -- IX (and above)
Source: Lok Sabha; Note:Modified Mercalli intensity measures the impact of earthquakes on the surface of the earth.
