Real-time USGS seismic data for Nepal and its border region, updated within minutes of each event. Location, magnitude, depth, and NPT time (UTC+5:45). Covering M2.5+ events in the 26-31N, 80-89E zone. No account needed, no data stored.
Data source: USGS Earthquake Hazards Program
Earthquake data on this page is sourced from the USGS FDSN real-time API - the world's most reliable open seismic feed, updated within minutes of each event. The bounding box covers 26°–31°N, 80°–89°E (Nepal and immediate border region). USGS location names sometimes reference the nearest known place in their global database (e.g. "Naya Bāzār, India" for East Nepal border events) - MeroKalam shows the actual region context alongside.
Less than 35 km deep. Most damaging type for a given magnitude, as energy reaches the surface with less spreading. Dominant along Nepal's MHT at 5–20 km depth.
35–70 km deep. Lower surface intensity but felt across a much wider area. Common in the Indian slab as it descends beneath Nepal.
Over 70 km deep. Rarely destructive at the surface. Associated with subduction of the Indian plate deep into the mantle beneath Tibet.
Risk is assessed based on proximity to active fault segments, historical seismic frequency, local geology, population density, and building stock vulnerability. Ratings are relative. All of Nepal carries significant seismic hazard compared to global averages.
⚠️ Karnali and Sudurpashchim are classified Critical due to the 500+ year seismic gap on the far-western MHT, a locked fault capable of generating an M8.0–8.5 event. Bagmati (Kathmandu) is rated Very High because of thick lake-bed sediments that amplify shaking 2–8× and a high concentration of unreinforced masonry buildings. Rating ≠ frequency; Kathmandu may experience a large earthquake less often than the far-west but consequences of a direct hit would be catastrophic.
Casualties sorted by confirmed fatalities. Hover or tap a bar for full event details including epicentre, province, and magnitude. Bar colour reflects magnitude class.
Fetches official USGS earthquake feed within minutes of each event. Covering Nepal and the surrounding 26-31N, 80-89E region.
All earthquake times shown in Nepal Prevailing Time (UTC+5:45), not UTC, so you read them correctly without conversion.
Border-region events labeled "Nayabazar, India" are explained with their Nepal district relevance (Taplejung, Ilam, Panchthar).
Track seismic activity over the past 30 days with chart view showing magnitude patterns for the Nepal region.
Earthquake locations plotted with depth and magnitude indicators on a Nepal-region map for visual context.
This page only reads USGS public data. No account, no personal data collected, no cookies or tracking.
USGS labels some Nepal earthquakes as "Nayabazar, India" because it is the nearest named populated place in their global database. Nayabazar (Naya Bazar) is in West Sikkim, directly on the Nepal-Sikkim border. Events labeled there are seismically relevant to far-east Nepal, particularly Taplejung, Ilam, and Panchthar districts.
Nepal consistently ranks among the ten most earthquake-prone nations on Earth. Between 1900 and 2024, the country and its immediate surroundings recorded more than 40 earthquakes above M6.0, averaging roughly one significant event every three years. Yet most Nepalis outside major cities still have limited access to clear, science-based information about where the risk is highest, what the data actually means, and exactly what to do when the ground begins to shake. This guide brings together tectonic science, district-level risk analysis, historical data, and practical preparedness advice in one place.
The Himalayan mountain range, and Nepal's seismic hazard, exist because of one of the most dramatic geological events in Earth's recent history: the collision of the Indian subcontinent with the Eurasian plate. Around 50 million years ago, India began pushing northward after separating from the ancient supercontinent Gondwana. It was moving at approximately 15 cm per year at the time of first contact; today the rate has slowed to 4–5 cm per year, but the collision has never stopped.
The result of this ongoing collision is the Himalayan arc, the world's highest mountain range, and a system of thrust faults that runs along the entire 2,400 km length of Nepal and beyond. The leading edge of the Indian plate does not simply stop at the surface. It dips beneath the Eurasian plate at a gentle angle of 5–15°, like a wedge being driven under a block. This descending slab is locked for much of its length by friction. Over decades and centuries, elastic strain accumulates. When friction is overcome, the locked section slips suddenly, producing an earthquake.
The primary slip surface is known as the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT). It is not a single clean break in the crust but a complex system of stacked thrust sheets separated by décollement surfaces. When seismologists talk about "the fault that causes Nepal earthquakes," they almost always mean a segment of the MHT or one of its closely related splays: the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT), the Main Central Thrust (MCT), or the Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT).
The MHT underlies virtually the entire 800 km length of Nepal, from the Indian border in the south to deep beneath the Tibetan Plateau in the north. At shallow depths (5–20 km), it is the source of most of Nepal's damaging earthquakes. Long rupture length means a slipping segment can unzip 150–300 km in under two minutes, as seen in the 2015 Gorkha earthquake. Shallow nucleation depth of 10–20 km means energy reaches the surface with far less attenuation than a deep-focus event. Updip slip thrusts the hanging wall upward and southward, accelerating buildings from below in complex patterns. Together these characteristics make MHT earthquakes disproportionately destructive relative to their magnitude.
Kathmandu Valley sits in a topographic depression that was once a lake, Nagdaha, that filled over hundreds of thousands of years with fine-grained lacustrine sediments, silts, and clays. This soft, water-saturated material reaches 550–600 metres depth in the valley centre before bedrock is encountered. When seismic waves travel from hard bedrock into soft sediment, they slow dramatically (shear velocity drops from ~3,000 m/s to ~150–300 m/s) and amplitude increases to conserve energy, producing seismic site amplification of 2–8× in central Kathmandu versus rock sites on the valley rim.
A second effect, resonance, occurs when the earthquake's dominant frequency matches the natural vibration period of the sediment column. Kathmandu's sediments resonate at 1–4 seconds: exactly the range most destructive to 3–8 storey buildings, the dominant building type in the valley. The 2015 earthquake produced exceptional long-period shaking in Kathmandu despite the epicentre being 77 km away in Gorkha. A third compounding hazard is liquefaction: waterlogged fine sand beneath parts of Patan, Bhaktapur, and central Kathmandu can lose its load-bearing strength during intense shaking and temporarily behave like a liquid, causing buildings to tilt or sink even when shaking alone might not have destroyed them.
A seismic gap is a section of a fault that is locked (accumulating strain) but has not experienced a large earthquake in a very long time. Nepal's most alarming gap runs along a 500–600 km segment of the MHT beneath far-western Nepal, from Jumla in the east to Darchula in the west, encompassing Karnali and Sudurpashchim provinces. Paleoseismic studies show this segment has not had a magnitude 8+ event since approximately 1505 AD, when the Lo Mustang earthquake (estimated M≥8.0) caused dramatic ground deformation still visible in the landscape today.
More than 519 years of strain accumulation at 4–5 cm per year represents 20–25 metres of potential MHT slip. Models suggest a future rupture of M7.9–8.5, propagating eastward toward Kathmandu. The 2023 Jajarkot earthquake (M5.7, 158 deaths) occurred at the eastern edge of this gap but released only a tiny fraction of the accumulated energy. This gap is why Karnali and Sudurpashchim are classified as Critical risk despite currently lower seismicity than central Nepal. Low current activity in a gap zone is part of the definition of the hazard, not reassurance against it.
Karnali Province, epicentre of the 2023 Jajarkot earthquake, sits directly above the western MHT gap. Most structures in Jajarkot, Rukum West, Humla, and Mugu are unreinforced stone masonry with heavy timber roofs. Emergency access is severely limited by remoteness; after Jajarkot 2023, survivors waited 12–24 hours for helicopter evacuation. A larger event in this province would be catastrophic.
Sudurpashchim Province shares the same geological setting. The 1980 Bajhang earthquake (M6.5, ~200 deaths) demonstrated the lethal combination of poor construction, steep landslide-prone terrain, and limited road access. This province has the highest ratio of risk-to-preparedness in Nepal.
Bagmati Province (Kathmandu, population 3 million+) represents perhaps the highest absolute risk. The National Society for Earthquake Technology–Nepal (NSET) estimated a repeat of the 1934 earthquake could kill 40,000–100,000 people in the valley. Kathmandu has grown dramatically since 2015 and much of the building stock still does not meet modern seismic codes.
Gandaki Province was the 2015 Gorkha epicentre. Districts including Gorkha, Lamjung, Dhading, and Rasuwa suffered extreme 2015 damage. High-altitude zones in Manaslu and Annapurna areas still have largely traditional construction. The MHT front runs through the southern flank.
Koshi Province faces moderate-to-high risk. The 2011 Sikkim border earthquake (M6.9) damaged Taplejung, Sankhuwasabha, and Ilam. The eastern MHT segment has not had a major rupture since the 1934 Nepal-Bihar event, leaving over 90 years of re-accumulating strain.
Lumbini Province includes Rolpa and Rukum East, which suffered 2015 damage and 2023 aftershocks. Better road access than Karnali but still many unreinforced masonry structures in hilly northern districts.
Madhesh Province (Terai plains) has different risk characteristics: flat alluvial plains susceptible to liquefaction during strong shaking transmitted from mid-hill epicentres. The 1934 earthquake caused catastrophic liquefaction in Madhesh, with sand boils erupting metres high across the plains.
The Moment Magnitude (Mw) scale is the current scientific standard, though "Richter scale" remains in common use. The critical point: the scale is logarithmic, meaning each whole-number increase represents roughly 31.6× more energy released. An M7.8 (Gorkha 2015) released approximately 250× more energy than the M5.7 Jajarkot event, which is why the numerical difference (2.1 magnitude units) dramatically understates the physical difference in destructive power. USGS and Nepal's Department of Mines and Geology (DMG) both use Mw for large earthquakes.
The primary ground shaking is often not the only killer. Landslides: Nepal's over-steepened hillsides are primed to fail under seismic loading. The 2015 Gorkha earthquake triggered over 25,000 landslides, including the Langtang avalanche that buried most of Langtang village under ~12 million cubic metres of debris, killing 350 people. Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs): strong shaking can breach moraine dams above glacial lakes in Solukhumbu, Manang, and Mustang, releasing catastrophic floods within minutes. Aftershock sequences: after the Gorkha mainshock, Nepal experienced 300+ aftershocks above M4.0 in the following year, including the M7.3 Dolakha aftershock on May 12 that killed 218 more people in already-weakened buildings.
Even within Kathmandu Valley, hazard varies dramatically. The valley centre (Thamel, New Road, Baneshwor, Patan Durbar Square) sits on the deepest, softest sediments with the highest amplification. Valley rim areas such as Kirtipur, Bhaktapur ridge, Nagarkot, and Dhulikhel are underlain by shallower sediment or rock outcrops and experience significantly less amplification. Paradoxically, some of the city's most expensive land near Bagmati river corridors may carry the highest liquefaction risk due to shallow water tables and loose alluvial deposits. NSET's Kathmandu Valley Earthquake Risk Management Project (KVERMP) estimated a 1934-repeat scenario would destroy 60% of buildings in the valley.
Moment Magnitude (Mw) is logarithmic: each step up is ~31.6× more energy. Descriptions reflect Nepal's shallow MHT earthquakes at typical depths of 10–20 km.
Felt by almost no one. Nepal's seismic network records dozens weekly. No damage potential. USGS detects thousands globally per day.
Felt indoors by many, especially on upper floors. Hanging objects sway. Typically causes no damage. Nepal experiences M3 events multiple times per week.
Felt throughout a district. Windows rattle. Dishes may break. Cracked plaster in old buildings. Occurs several times monthly in Nepal's active zones.
Felt strongly by all. Furniture overturns. Unreinforced masonry suffers significant cracking. 2023 Jajarkot (M5.7) killed 158 people due to weak local construction.
Destructive to ordinary buildings within ~100 km. Major damage to poorly constructed buildings. Landslides on steep slopes. 2011 Sikkim border (M6.9) caused significant damage in Koshi Province.
Serious to severe damage in most buildings, even well-built ones. Total destruction of poorly built structures over a wide area. 2015 Gorkha (M7.8): 8,964 deaths, 600,000+ buildings destroyed.
Total destruction near epicentre. Permanent land deformation. 1934 Nepal-Bihar (M8.0): ~10,700 deaths. A future M8+ from the western Nepal seismic gap would be Nepal's worst recorded natural disaster.
Most earthquake deaths occur in the first 60 seconds of shaking. What you do before, and in those critical seconds, determines survival. This guide follows internationally accepted standards adapted for Nepal's specific conditions.
District-level granularity, dominant fault systems, key historical events, and building vulnerability for each province.
| Province | Risk Level | Most Vulnerable Districts | Key Fault / Hazard | Ref. Event |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Karnali | Critical | Jajarkot, Rukum West, Humla, Mugu, Kalikot | Western MHT gap; locked segment >500 years | 2023 Jajarkot M5.7, 158 deaths |
| Sudurpashchim | Critical | Darchula, Bajhang, Baitadi, Doti, Achham | Western MHT gap; HFT active segments | 1980 Bajhang M6.5, ~200 deaths |
| Bagmati | Very High | Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Sindhupalchok, Rasuwa | MHT directly beneath valley; deep lacustrine amplification; liquefaction risk | 2015 Gorkha M7.8, 8,964 deaths |
| Gandaki | Very High | Gorkha, Lamjung, Dhading, Manang, Mustang | MHT front; Trans-Himalayan faults; GLOF risk | 2015 Gorkha M7.8 epicentre; Langtang avalanche |
| Koshi | High | Taplejung, Sankhuwasabha, Solukhumbu, Okhaldhunga | Eastern MHT; Sikkim-Nepal border faults | 2011 Sikkim border M6.9; 1934 Bihar east segment |
| Lumbini | Mod–High | Rolpa, Rukum East, Palpa, Arghakhanchi | MHT mid-section; 2015 aftershock zone | 2015 sequence aftershocks; damage in Rolpa |
| Madhesh | Moderate | Siraha, Saptari, Mahottari, Bara | HFT at Terai edge; liquefaction in alluvial plains | 1934 Bihar earthquake, Terai liquefaction |
Nepal's recorded earthquake history stretches back centuries, with accounts in the chronicles of the Malla kingdoms describing catastrophic events that reshaped the Kathmandu Valley. Modern instrumental recording began in the 1960s, but historical evidence, including palace and temple destruction records, foreign traveller accounts, and paleoseismic trenching, allows scientists to construct a credible catalogue going back several hundred years.
| Parameter | Detail |
|---|---|
| Date & Time | January 15, 1934 at 14:13 NPT |
| Magnitude | M 8.0 (Mw) |
| Epicentre | ~26.6°N, 86.8°E (Eastern Nepal / Bihar border) |
| Depth | ~20 km (shallow MHT) |
| Deaths | ~10,700 (Nepal: ~8,500; Bihar: ~2,200) |
| Affected districts | Mahottari, Sarlahi, Sindhuli, Dhanusha, Kathmandu Valley |
Known locally as the Bihār Bhukampa, the 1934 earthquake remains the most powerful instrumentally recorded event in Nepal's history. It struck in the middle of the afternoon when many people were outside, which reduced indoor casualties compared to a night event. Even so, the ancient brick architecture of the Kathmandu Valley was devastated. Contemporary accounts describe Bhaktapur's Durbar Square as "a pile of rubble from one end to the other." The event caused widespread liquefaction across the Terai: eyewitness accounts from Birgunj describe sand fountains erupting metres high from the ground. The earthquake also destroyed the Dharahara tower and severely damaged Kathmandu Durbar Square. Nepal would not see damage on this scale again for 81 years.
| Parameter | Detail |
|---|---|
| Date & Time | August 20, 1988 at 23:09 NPT |
| Magnitude | M 6.9 |
| Epicentre | ~26.7°N, 86.6°E (Udayapur District) |
| Deaths | ~721 (Nepal) + ~1,004 (Bihar, India) |
| Injured | ~6,500+ |
The Udayapur earthquake struck at night when most people were asleep, the most lethal time for a building-collapse event. It triggered significant landslides in the Mahabharat Range and caused severe damage in Sindhuli, Kavrepalanchok, and Udayapur districts. Bihar experienced even higher casualties. The event exposed the extreme vulnerability of traditional Nepali brick-and-timber construction that was standard across rural eastern Nepal and directly inspired early work by the National Society for Earthquake Technology–Nepal (NSET) on seismic awareness and building codes.
| Event | Date | Magnitude | Deaths | Epicentre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mainshock | April 25, 2015 11:56 NPT | M 7.8 | ~8,964 | Gorkha District |
| M6.7 Aftershock | April 25, 2015 17:05 NPT | M 6.7 | (included above) | Sindhupalchok |
| Dolakha Aftershock | May 12, 2015 12:50 NPT | M 7.3 | ~218 | Dolakha / Sindhupalchok |
| Major aftershocks >M5 | April–October 2015 | 300+ | - | Various |
The 2015 Gorkha earthquake is the defining disaster of modern Nepal. It killed 8,964 people, injured 21,952, and left more than 600,000 families homeless. Economic damage was estimated at $7 billion USD, approximately one-third of Nepal's annual GDP. The earthquake destroyed or damaged more than 760,000 structures across 31 districts. Fourteen UNESCO World Heritage sites in Kathmandu were damaged or destroyed, including the complete collapse of the Dharahara tower and major damage to Kasthamandap, Swayambhunath, and both Durbar Squares.
The May 12 Dolakha aftershock (M7.3) struck during active rescue and recovery operations, killing 218 more people and collapsing structures already weakened by the mainshock. Notably, the Gorkha earthquake caused less destruction than many pre-earthquake models had predicted for a M7.8 scenario. This is attributed to the rupture propagating eastward away from Kathmandu rather than directly toward it. A future rupture closer to or directly beneath the valley could produce far greater casualties.
| Parameter | Detail |
|---|---|
| Date & Time | November 3, 2023 at 23:47 NPT |
| Magnitude | M 5.7 |
| Depth | ~18 km (shallow) |
| Deaths | 158 (Jajarkot: 95, Rukum West: 63) |
| Injured | 363+ |
| Houses destroyed | ~26,000+ |
The Jajarkot earthquake is a sobering case study in how building quality determines death tolls far more than magnitude alone. At M5.7, it was a moderate event. The same magnitude would cause no deaths in a modern city with earthquake-resistant construction. But Jajarkot and Rukum West are among Nepal's most remote, poorest districts, where traditional stone-walled construction without mortar, supported by heavy wooden roof beams, is nearly universal. The earthquake struck at 11:47 PM when residents were asleep; stone walls collapsed on sleeping occupants. Helicopters from Kathmandu could not reach the area until daylight. The disaster prompted the government to accelerate reconstruction with earthquake-resistant designs under National Reconstruction Authority guidelines, but implementation in the most remote areas remains incomplete as of 2024.
No instrument recorded the 1505 earthquake, but paleoseismic evidence, including fault scarps, offset terraces, and liquefaction features preserved in sediment, documents one of the largest Himalayan earthquakes in the last 500 years. It is estimated to have ruptured a 500+ km segment of the western MHT. Historical chronicles from Nepal and India describe widespread destruction and altered river courses. This event established the last major rupture of the western MHT segment. In the 519 years since, that segment has accumulated strain equivalent to 20+ metres of potential slip, energy that will eventually be released in one or more large earthquakes, making it the primary reason seismologists consistently identify far-western Nepal as the region of highest unresolved seismic risk in the entire Himalayan arc.
Nepal's seismic network records minor tremors (M1–3) almost daily. The USGS detects M4+ events in the Nepal bounding box multiple times per month; the live feed on this page typically shows 30–80 M4+ events over a 30-day period. Significant events above M5.5 occur several times per year. Major earthquakes above M6.5 strike roughly every 3–5 years somewhere in the Nepal region. The most seismically active periods follow large ruptures (aftershock sequences); quieter periods can last several years before another notable event.
USGS earthquake location data includes a nearest place name drawn from their global gazetteer of populated towns. For events in the Nepal-Sikkim border region, the nearest entry in their database is often Naya Bāzār (Nayabazar), a town in West Sikkim District, India, which sits directly on the Nepal-Sikkim border. For far-western Nepal events, USGS may name Pithoragarh or Dharchula in Uttarakhand, India. This does not mean the earthquake happened in India; the coordinates are what matter. MeroKalam's tracker explicitly shows the border-region context ("West Sikkim, India - near East Nepal border") next to any such name so you always understand the actual seismic context.
Earthquake depth is the distance from the surface to the rupture point (the hypocentre). Shallow earthquakes (less than 35 km) are the most destructive for a given magnitude because seismic waves have less distance to spread before reaching the surface. Nepal's MHT earthquakes typically occur at 10–20 km depth, making them particularly impactful. Intermediate-depth events (35–70 km) are felt over a wider area but cause less concentrated damage. Deep events (70+ km) are rarely destructive. Roughly 70–80% of Nepal's recorded events are shallow, which is why even moderate M4.5 earthquakes sometimes feel very strong locally.
The 1934 Nepal-Bihar Earthquake at M8.0 is the largest instrumentally recorded event, killing approximately 10,700 people. The 2015 Gorkha earthquake (M7.8) is the most recent catastrophic event (8,964 deaths). Could something similar happen again? Absolutely. The MHT accumulates strain continuously. Seismologists have identified a 500+ year seismic gap in far-western Nepal capable of a future M8.0–8.5 event. This is not a prediction of when. Earthquakes cannot be predicted. But it is a statement about geophysical inevitability. Nepal's preparedness efforts are calibrated to this risk level.
भूकम्प (bhukampa) is the standard Nepali and Sanskrit word for earthquake, from bhū (earth) + kampa (trembling). Official earthquake information in Nepal is disseminated by: NDRRMA (National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority), the primary government body; the Department of Mines and Geology (DMG), which operates the national seismic monitoring network; Nepal Police and Nepal Army for immediate response coordination; and Nepal Red Cross for relief operations. All official Nepali government communications use भूकम्प alongside the English term in bilingual contexts.
These are two different questions. In terms of earthquake frequency, the most active districts cluster in Karnali and western Bagmati province (the 2015 aftershock zone and the edge of the western gap). However, frequency does not equal risk. A district with many small quakes may be releasing strain safely. In terms of earthquake risk (hazard + exposure + vulnerability), Jajarkot, Rukum West, Darchula, Bajhang top the list for casualty risk per earthquake because of remoteness, poor building stock, and minimal preparedness infrastructure. Kathmandu has the highest absolute risk in terms of potential total casualties because of its 3 million+ concentrated population in amplifying soils with predominantly unreinforced building stock.
Kathmandu is a high seismic hazard zone but millions of tourists visit safely every year. Practical steps: Choose hotels with modern concrete construction (post-2015 structures are generally safer than heritage-zone brick buildings). Know the Drop-Cover-Hold-On drill. Identify the assembly point at your hotel. Keep your phone charged with emergency numbers saved (Police: 100, Ambulance: 102). During trekking, know the GLOF and landslide risks in monsoon-adjacent seasons. Earthquakes cannot be predicted; the risk is real but so is the immense value of visiting Nepal.
This page fetches data from seismonepal.gov.np - the official website of Nepal's National Earthquake Monitoring and Research Center (NEMRC) under the Department of Mines and Geology. NEMRC operates Nepal's own network of seismograph stations. When a significant earthquake (M4.0+) occurs, it is analysed and published on seismonepal.gov.np. Data is cached via a Cloudflare Worker and refreshed every 6 hours. All times are converted from UTC to Nepal Standard Time (NPT = UTC+5:45), the world's only timezone with a 15-minute offset from the hour.
The western Nepal seismic gap refers to a 500–600 km segment of the MHT beneath Karnali and Sudurpashchim that has not had a large (M7.5+) earthquake since the estimated 1505 Lo Mustang earthquake. At 4–5 cm/year of plate convergence over 519 years, this represents 20+ metres of potential MHT slip, enough for an M8.0–8.5 event. The 2023 Jajarkot M5.7 occurred at the eastern edge of this gap. Should you be worried? If you live in Karnali or Sudurpashchim, treat this as a call to action on preparedness. Earthquake timing cannot be predicted. The appropriate response is not anxiety but action: reinforce your house, prepare your household, and support community preparedness.
Several options: NDRRMA hotline (1149) is the official disaster line. The Department of Mines and Geology (dmgnepal.gov.np) publishes seismic bulletins for significant events. USGS Earthquake Notifications offer free email and RSS alerts with custom magnitude thresholds. Nepal Telecom and Ncell occasionally push SMS alerts for significant events. MeroKalam's earthquake tracker (this page) provides real-time USGS data with NPT timestamps and Nepal-specific region context for every event. For social media: follow official NDRRMA, Nepal Army, and Nepal Police accounts, and critically evaluate everything else, especially magnitude claims in the first hours after a significant event.