A NEWS REPORT.

Many countries are sending aid to Nepal after a serious earthquake took place there
on Saturday.

Nepal is a country – technically a “federal democratic republic” – located between

China and India. One of its best-known features is Mount Everest, the highest point on
Earth.
The earthquake’s magnitude (size) was 7.9, which means that it was very powerful. It
was felt throughout Nepal but also in regions of India, Tibet, Pakistan and Bangladesh,
and even at the Chinese-Nepal border.
Nepal is a low-income country, which “continues to struggle with high levels of hunger
and poverty,” according to Wikipedia. This matters, because poorer countries have
fewer health resources such as hospitals and medicine, to help during times of crisis.

The earthquake occurred on a “thrust fault,” according to Macleans Magazine. One

piece of the Earth’s crust, far underground, is moving at 45 millimetres a year,
underneath another piece (in this case, the Indian plate is moving north, underneath
the Eurasian plate, according to Macleans).
There was extensive damage to homes and ancient monuments in Nepal, including
some temples in the country’s capital city, Kathmandu, that were hundreds of years
old. As many as 35 villages have been devastated by the earthquake.
The earthquake also caused a massive avalanche on Mount Everest that has wounded
or killed people who were climbing the mountain at the time.

The British Red Cross was one of the first organizations to send aid to the country. They
had “thousands of aid items ready for distribution and an emergency blood bank,” in
case something like this happened, according to CBC News’s website.
“Aftershocks” or smaller, related earthquakes, continued to occur after the big
earthquake. The situation is still unfolding in the region, as aid and money flows into
the country to help out its more than 27 million people.