A magnitude 7 earthquake struck northern Tibet late local time, with no immediate word on casualties, coming just two months after deadly floods across the Himalayan region.
China’s Earthquake Networks Centre said the tremor hit around 10:30 p.m. local time in a high-altitude county in Nagqu, northern Tibet, the Daily Mail reported. The epicenter sat about 250 miles from Lhasa, at a depth of 6.21 miles. Officials said the shaking was felt in the local area.
Whether anyone was injured or killed remained unknown in the early accounts. The quake lands on a stretch of the Himalayas already reeling from recent floods and a history of powerful shocks driven by colliding tectonic plates.
Tibet sits where the Indian and Eurasian plates grind together. That collision built the Himalayan range and left major fault systems, including the Altyn Tagh Fault and the Xianshuihe Fault System, under constant strain.
Last year a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck Tingri County in Tibet. Up to 400 people were killed in the region alone. Another 13 died in Nepal. Damage reached northern India, and tremors were felt across south Asia.
In 2010 a magnitude 7.1 tremor hit Yushu in neighboring Qinghai province, roughly 280 kilometers away. At least 2,698 people were killed and nearly 300 were listed as missing.
The latest shock follows, by only a couple of months, powerful floods and debris flows that tore through Tibet and Nepal. In Tibet at least 43 people died and 519 went missing. In Nepal at least 1,455 people died and 5,285 went missing.
Against that backdrop, the UN’s Fund for responding to Loss and Damage moved Thursday to earmark $20 million (£15 million) in aid sought by flood-stricken Nepal. It was the first time the fund has set aside money for any country since its launch in 2022, after hard-fought creation at COP27 and COP28.
Board co-chair Camila Minerva Rodriguez Tavarez announced the step after a virtual extraordinary meeting.
"Hearing no objections, the decision is so adopted,"
The $20 million is the maximum a country can request in a single application. It is less than half a percent of Nepal’s $4.78 billion (£3.57 billion) reconstruction estimate. Governments have pledged $822 million (£614 million) to the fund to date. No money has been disbursed so far. Nepal must still present a proposal, the board must approve it, and no firm timeline exists. The decision does not mean funds arrive right away.
Earthquakes and floods keep arriving on schedule. International pledges and process do not.
