Nepal earthquake

The April 2015 Nepal earthquake (also known as the Gorkha earthquake) killed nearly 9,000 people and injured nearly 22,000. It occurred at 11:56 Nepal Standard Time on 25 April, with a magnitude of 7.8 or 8.1M_sand a maximum Mercalli Intensity of IX (Violent). Its epicenter was east of Gorkha District at Barpak, Gorkha, and its hypocenterwas at a depth of approximately 8.2 km (5.1 mi).^[1] It was the worst natural disaster to strike Nepal since the 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake. The ground motion recorded in Kathmandu valley was of long period that cause the limited human and property loss in kathmandu valley.

The earthquake triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest, killing 21,making April 25, 2015 the deadliest day on the mountain in history. The earthquake triggered another huge avalanche in the Langtang valley, where 250 people were reported missing.

Hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless with entire villages flattened, across many districts of the country. Centuries-old buildings were destroyed at UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Kathmandu Valley, including some at theKathmandu Durbar Square, the Patan Durbar Square, the Bhaktapur Durbar Square, theChangu Narayan Temple, the Boudhanathstupa and the Swayambhunath Stupa. Geophysicists and other experts had warned for decades that Nepal was vulnerable to a deadly earthquake, particularly because of its geology, urbanization, and architecture.

Continued aftershocks occurred throughout Nepal at the intervals of 15–20 minutes, with one shock reaching a magnitude of 6.7 on 26 April at 12:54:08 NST. The country also had a continued risk of landslides.

A major aftershock occurred on 12 May 2015 at 12:50 NST with a moment magnitude (M_w) of 7.3.The epicenter was near the Chinese border between the capital of Kathmandu and Mt. Everest. More than 200 people were killed and more than 2,500 were injured by this aftershock.

Hyperloop is a tradename and a registered trademark of the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) for the high speed transportation of passengers and goods in partially evacuated tubes.^[1][2]

Recently there has been a resurgence in interest in pneumatic tube transportation systems since being reintroduced, using updated technologies, by Elon Musk after 2012,^[3][4] incorporating reduced-pressure tubes in which pressurized capsules ride on an air cushion driven by linear induction motors and air compressors.^[5]

The outline of the original Hyperloop concept was made public by the release of a preliminary design document in August 2013, which included a notional route running from the Los Angeles region to the San Francisco Bay Area, paralleling the Interstate 5 corridor for most of its length. Preliminary analysis indicated that such a route might obtain an expected journey time of 35 minutes, meaning that passengers would traverse the 350-mile (560 km) route at an average speed of around 600 mph (970 km/h), with a top speed of 760 mph (1,200 km/h). Preliminary cost estimates for the LA–SF notional route were included in the white paper—US$6 billion for a passenger-only version, and US$7.5 billion for a somewhat larger-diameter version transporting passengers and vehicles^[4] —although transportation analysts doubted that the system could be constructed on that budget.^[6

Hyperloop technology has been explicitly open-sourced by Musk and SpaceX, and others have been encouraged to take the ideas and further develop them. To that end, several companies have been formed, and dozens of interdisciplinary student-led teams are working to advance the technology.^[9] However, some experts are sceptical, saying that the proposals ignore the expenses and risks of developing the technology and that the idea is "completely impractical".^[10]

Construction of a full-scale prototype 5-mile (8 km) track started in 2016.^[11] In addition, a subscale pod design competition on a very short, 1 mile (1.6 km), test track was built in Nevada – the first tests of the scale model occurred in May 2016.^[12]