
Soulful bells echo through the mountains at dawn, calling the monks to prayer at Tangboche Monastery.
I want so much to be able to return to the mountain kingdom of Nepal and help them in their hour of need. To see all those wonderful people again would be so great. That may seem a strange thing to say. But I know for a fact that even in the midst of tragedy they remain an optimistic and warm people. Right now I’m missing them and praying for their safety. I wanted to post some pictures of Nepal that I’ve never shared, and also go into some background on how and why this happened.
THE GEOLOGIC STORY
You may have heard that Mt. Everest is getting taller, and we just saw dramatic and horrific evidence of that fact. India collided with south Asia some 55 million years ago, and the mighty Himalayas began then. But that slow motion and awesome event continues today, as huge slabs of the earth’s crust continue to be shoved beneath the Tibetan Plateau. The zone where they come together, along the 2400 km. (1500 mile) long Himalayan mountain front is complex. But north-directed subduction, or underthrusting, is the dominant process.
The earth’s most recent and currently most dramatic tectonic collision has resulted in shortening of northern India and southern Nepal, bringing Delhi and Lhasa closer together. This in turn causes the crust to greatly thicken (mostly in the downward direction). In other words, most of the long mountain range lies beneath sea level. Like a giant iceberg, active mountain ranges have roots that are hundreds of times more voluminous than their visible parts. The north-south shortening doesn’t just create crustal thickening; it also causes the region to widen in an east-west direction via a series of large strike-slip faults (like the San Andreas).

Having climbed Everest 8 times in his career, this Sherpa I met taking a walk above his home village had a great way about him.
Deep beneath the Himalaya, collision takes the form of a slow, hot, plastic deformation. There are no sudden jerking motions. But in shallower regions, where the rocks are cooler and brittle, this is impossible. Instead, the stress builds up until it’s finally released with a sudden rapid slide along a plane of weakness (or fault).
It is at those times that we on the surface of this planet are reminded that ours is a dynamic planet. These events, which can vary from a gentle rocking that lasts only seconds and which you only notice if you are in a quiet place to violent minutes-long shaking that can bring down buildings and even whole mountainsides, are called earthquakes.
The earthquake of April 25th was centered about 80 km. (50 miles) NW of Kathmandu, It was magnitude 7.8 on the Richter scale. It was located about 15 km. (9+ miles) deep. That is fairly shallow for a quake of this size. Combined with the dense population and low quality of construction in most of the region, this made for a major disaster. Considering what is going on here, the coming together of two of Earth’s greatest tectonic plates, historic earthquakes are relatively few. The last one to affect the same area was in 1988 and killed 1500. The 1934 Bihar earthquake killed some 10,600 and severely damaged Kathmandu.
Most of the people here, with the resources to live from day to day and not much more, have been deeply affected by this disaster. The current count is over 4000 and still rising. Many people live far from roads, so the final tally could take weeks or even months. Undoubtedly many of the deaths will turn out to be caused by major landslides. In any mountainous region, a big quake leads to landslides of epic size. Snow avalanches also occurred in the alpine regions, including one caught on video that roared down the south side of Everest and hit base camp.
So much misery can be brought by earthquakes. They strike without warning of course, and this makes them truly terrifying. I have been in a few small ones, and get a visceral thrill out of it. I get the same feeling witnessing a volcanic eruption. That’s partly because I’m a geologist and know about the connection between a living breathing planet and life. But I’m sure my reaction would be one of pure terror if and when I’m caught in a truly big event. Once, in 1999, I flew out of Istanbul less than 24 hours before a major quake hit that city, killing 17,000.

I played around with this little Sherpa girl as her mother sewed in a small sun-warmed courtyard. She is a teenager now.

A Gurkha I met whitewater rafting, he emigrated to Hong Kong, and hosted me there. Nepalis are so nice!
Please give if you can to the legitimate aid organizations helping in Nepal. And in any case, please keep those beautiful souls in your thoughts and prayers. I’ve never seen a harder working people. I’m sure they will recover, but big aftershocks continue as I’m writing this.
Friends of mine are camped outside in pouring rain, afraid to return to their homes. So right now I’m hoping and praying the aftershocks are many and small, not fewer and large. Namaste to all Nepalis and all those who have connections to the country.
I have always wanted to return some day – but have never done so. I was there in the eighties when I was young. Love the people there and send all my thoughts to them. We have some good organisations here to send money through. Thank you for posting.
Thank you Leya, and they need a lot more help now that they’ve had another major quake.
Yes. I have contributed – the least you can do from faraway.
That’s awesome! I’ve sold a few prints and will contribute all of that. I wish there was more I could do actually.
Thanks for a great post about this amazing country – now suffering from the tragic natural disaster. I hope soon tthat all in need in Nepal get help – also help to build better houses that can withstand future earthquakes.
Better construction would certainly help. It’s amazing they don’t get more big quakes, but this one certainly caused some misery!
Thank you so very much for this wonderful information, insight and obvious love for that part of the world. The recent tragedy is too devastating for most of us to comprehend properly. How on earth can these poor people get back to normal ever again ?
Thanks for reading. I’m sure they will recover; they’re a resilient people.
Beautiful written. My prayers are with these gentle souls in their time of need.
Thank you LuAnn
Never been there but wonderful place, wonderful people. Enjoyed the pics in a heart-broken kind of way. Their problem now is the same thing that made their country such an attractive place to visit: land-locked, no ports and altitudes so high that many helicopters can not even be used.
Yep, it’s poor alright, but beautiful. Only thing they have in abundance is hydro power.
I feel your pain on this one. I’ve spent a great deal of time in Nepal and it breaks my heart to see this pain and destruction that has visited them.
I think all of us who’ve spent any time there are hit by this. Thanks John.
Thank you for sharing your insight and images.
Thank you for sharing about the tragedy and the beautiful people of Napal. You are all in my heart and prayers.
Thanks you guys for checking it out. Debating whether to join the many who offer prints for sale and all proceeds going to Nepal relief efforts. But I smell some self-serving stuff going on, so… I encourage everyone to research carefully how you may want to give, and then making an informed decision. There is only so much that can be done from the outside.
Thank you for the sad, yet realistic essay, and beautiful photos. Although a poor country in monetary terms, Nepal is culturally rich and gifted with extraordinary natural resources. Lets hope the Nepalese people (and their government) find the strength, support, and wisdom to rebuild carefully and preserve that wealth.
My prayers go out to the beautiful people there. May they find strength, support and help in their time of great need.
BE ENCOURAGED! BE BLESSED!