Natural Hazards of Nepal

 Nepal has no volcanoes , active or dormant. This is because the Himalayas are formed by convergent collision, not subduction or a divergent boundary. Therefore, the only way volcanoes could be formed is by heat which is less common, and so there are very few volcanoes in the whole Himalayan region. The nearest volcanoes to Nepal are in western China and Myanmar. China has likely extinct volcanoes and the others are either dormant or have “normal” amount of activity. At least 4 have been active in the past few hundred years. The last time there was an eruption was in 1951 which was the Kunlun volcano, a pyroclastic cinder cone, so one of the safer ones. The most prominent volcano in Myanmar is dormant or has “normal activity” - hasn’t erupted since at least the 1600s. ( Source ) Since these nearby volcanoes are cinder cones, the likelihood of Nepal being affected by the ash is relatively low. They do not have any specific protections in place for volcanoes.  China does have ma...

Nepal has approximately 68 earthquakes per year, however there have been 15 in the last month. These past ones have ranged from M2.7 - M4.6, though, overall, 92.7% are M4 ( https://earthquakelist.org/nepal/ ). Earthquakes greater than M7 only occur approximately every 80 or so years. Their earthquakes are mostly shallow - less than 40km deep (*see first image) - meaning that they experience a lot of shaking ( https://www.worlddata.info/asia/nepal/earthquakes.php ).  Nepal is a poor country so many of their buildings are not able to withstand incredible shaking. However, as a subset of their Kathmandu Valley Earthquake Risk Management Project, they have made sure that their schools and hospitals are retrofitted and able to withstand. Schools also have drills for their students and an Earthquake Safety Day as part of the School Earthquake Safety Program. Additionally, USAID trained locals to build resilient buildings, deep wells for clean water in case of emergency, and warehouses fo...