The Earthquake in Nepal By Ivan, Eli & Leandro, V3at
The information comes from Europe's Sentinel-1A radar satellite. Scientists are wanting to look into the data of the Sentinel, which were made available on the 29th of April just hours after the satellite had passed Nepal. The data made sure that they could see where damage was done.
On 25 April a big earthquake (7.8-magnitude) hit Nepal. The epicentre was about 135 kilometres away from Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu. The earthquake killed more than 8,000 people, and it destroyed over half a million homes.
Damage done by the earthquake The earthquake to hit Nepal on 25 April is the most devastating earthquake to hit Nepal yet, with a 7.8magnitude. The earthquake and its 120 aftershocks, lasting 20 days, raised the death toll to approximately 8500 and there are still a lot of people missing. Sixteen days later a second quake hit with a 7.3-magnitude, just as the country was recovering from the first one. It caused thousands of landslides, which caused most of the damage in the east of the capital. A lot of people are now homeless and Nepal reported to have food and drink shortage. The total damage is estimated to cost between $1 billion and $10 billion.
Change of height A satellite shows that the ground near Kathmandu got lifted by about 3 feet, which explains why the damage in Nepal was so much. The data also indicates that the tallest mountain range (the Himalayas) in the world got shorter.
Researchers detected a vertical shift in the ground by comparing before-and-after radar images from the satellite using a technique that creates an image called an interferogram. The resulting images have coloured areas that represent the movement of the ground between the time each image was taken. Each colourful fringe on the interferogram reflects about 1 inch of vertical movement. The results will be clarified in the next couple of weeks. The earthquake caused the Mount Everest to move 3 cm to the southwest. The mountain used to move northeast, at 4 cm per year, but the earthquake moved the direction of the Mount Everest to southwest. The earthquake created an avalanche on the mountain, killing 18 people. Authorities in China and Nepal decided to cancel all climbs this year.
Fundraising & Money
The earthquake had quite an effect on the rest of the world. In several countries there have been fundraises (including the Netherlands), where they tried to collect as much money as possible. During the national fundraise of the Netherlands Giro 555 received around €21 million. The Netherlands and 7 other countries raised more than €150 million. The 7 other countries were Belgium, Canada, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden and Great Britain. Great Britain raised the most money which was €77,5 million.
FOURTH ISSUE
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