Convergent Plate Boundary

The Gorkha earthquake triggered landslides and avalanches, killing nearly 9,000 people and injuring almost 18,000 others. More than 750,000 houses were destroyed or damaged. The village of Langtang, shown in Figure 8.3, was almost completely destroyed when a landslide deposited an estimated 40 million tons of rock and ice onto the village. Many of the dead and injured lived in Langtang or were tourists visiting the Langtang National Park.

The earthquake originated 8.2 km below the surface of the Earth on or near the main thrust interface between the Indian and Eurasia plates. Figure 8.4 illustrates the convergence of these two plates.