After the devastation in Turkey & Syria, scientists have warned that nations on the Himalayan periphery should expect the Great Hi-malayan Earthquake, an 8+ mega-tremor that has been long overdue in the Himalaya mountains. Directly threatened are North India, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan, which are the nations directly situated on the Himalayan faults.

Seismologists delineate 15 segments of the Himalaya where a high-magnitude earthquake is expected.
A future earthquake occurring in one of two of these 15 segments will exceed or equal a magnitude of 8.7. Equally alarmingly, according to one study published by the Geological Society of London, possible earthquakes along any of the other segments will be at least as deadly as the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake, which was of 7.8Mw magnitude and killed nearly 10 thousand people.
Other Great Himalayan Earthquakes, those near or in excess of 8.0 magnitude, that have hit North India, Nepal and Tibet are the 1934 Nepal-India and the 1833 Kathmandu-Bihar earthquakes (both 8.0), the 1408 Nepal-Tibet earthquake (8.2) and the 1505 monster quake, estimated at between 8.2 and 8.8 magnitude, which wiped out 30% of the Nepali population.
The Himalaya, formed by the collision of the Indian plate with the Eurasian plate, is an inherently unstable region, and is the site of the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT), the seismological term for a kind of fault-line along which earthquakes occur. The MHT is the largest active ‘Megathrust fault’ in the world. The reason why one or several high-magnitude Great Himalayan Earthquakes are expected in the future is the ongoing collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates, in the course of which the Indian plate edges into Tibet at a minuscule rate each year, creating tension at the point of collision, or at the MHT. The way this tension is relieved is through periodical earthquakes, particularly high-magnitude quakes which lead to ‘crack ruptures’ that remove strain. The study, authored by Roger Bilham, a geologist associated with the University of Boulder in the USA, shows that enough strain-relieving high-magnitude earthquakes have not been observed in the past 500 years. This means that for 500 years, during which time India has moved 12m northward, the strain from the collision of the two plates has been building up. Therefore, seismologists predict, several earthquakes exceeding a magnitude of 8, much higher than the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Turkey on February 6, will be required to relieve the pent-up strain.
Though India counts on several efficient disaster relief forces like the NDRF and separate emergency forces in every state, in addition to the Indian military, which has distinguished itself in disaster relief at home and abroad, there are serious doubts about the efficacy of disaster prevention and relief in the case of such a super-tremor.
Though the NDMA has produced guidelines for the construction of quake-resilient buildings, India, Nepal and the Af-Pak region all contain old built environments which are extremely vulnerable. Crowded cities and congested residential areas will be serious impediments to any rescue efforts in the aftermath of a major natural calamity.
Most residential structures in the region are built with dodgy construction techniques and, in conflict-torn and impoverished Afghanistan and Pakistan, rescue efforts might prove difficult to orchestrate, as in the case of Syria