Rescuers Struggle To Reach Earthquake Victims; The Science Behind Earthquakes.
PEREIRA: We want to take a look at that 7.8 magnitude quake that has decimated Nepal. What makes this part of the world particularly vulnerable to earthquakes? Here to walk us through the science is physicist and host for the Science Channel, Deborah Berebichez. What a pleasure to have you here. I'm so sorry it's under these circumstances, 7.8, boy, that is chilling. How significant is that in this area compared to other earthquakes they have seen?</s>DEBORAH BEREBICHEZ, PHYSICIST: That's a good question. So earthquakes are measured by the amount of energy they release. And so the scale, for example, if you go from a 7 magnitude earthquake to an 8, that's a factor of 32 tons more energy. In this case, if you compare it to the Haiti earthquake which was a magnitude 7 or about this is an 8, if you were to increase it by 2 say from 7 to 9, that would be a thousand times more energies released. With the terrain and building codes not being up to par in that area of the world --</s>PEREIRA: Looking at the map, too, we know that this subsequently, all of these aftershocks have been particularly devastating as well. Are you anticipating more?</s>BEREBICHEZ: Correct. Yes. Invariably we always have the earth and the tectonic plate addressing after a major quake.</s>PEREIRA: On top of that, let's talk about what this area, the depth was quite shallow.</s>BEREBICHEZ: Correct.</s>PEREIRA: About 7 to 9 kilometers?</s>BEREBICHEZ: Seven miles, deep.</s>PEREIRA: The terrain plays as part in that as well. What is the terrain like there?</s>BEREBICHEZ: Correct. It's not only the terrain, so you have the Indian tectonic plate sort of pushing up wards to the northeast -- euro-Asia plate. It causes the Himalayas Mountains to go off a bit.</s>PEREIRA: It actually forms the Himalayas.</s>BEREBICHEZ: Correct, which interesting. At the same time, this fracture, two plates are thrusting against each other. They move about 45 millimeters every year. They are constantly pushing on each other. At one point this happens in that region every 75 years or so, the thrust is so hard that the Indian plates are pushed too much and the energy gets released.</s>PEREIRA: And what is so, they're saying that it essentially moved the city of Kathmandu by something like 10 miles.</s>BEREBICHEZ: You mean, correct. Yes.</s>PEREIRA: That's insane.</s>BEREBICHEZ: It's incredible.</s>PEREIRA: My goodness. Here's the other thing that you were talking to me about this particular region. The area where there fault line is, you say this is particularly problematic because of?</s>BEREBICHEZ: There is a highway that's built very near the fault lines, so where people tend to live is near that fault line.</s>PEREIRA: Thus the high casualty rate.</s>BEREBICHEZ: Correct, and also, we have to understand in physics we call resonance. When the frequency of oscillations in an earthquake tend to match the frequencies that are natural to that terrain and what happened is, for example, I grew up in Mexico City and the earthquake there was devastating. The natural frequency only served selected buildings from six to 15 stories high and those were the ones that were damaged. But at least that were lower or higher than that were not damaged as much and this terrain tended to oscillate in the natural frequency that devastated all those low stories.</s>PEREIRA: Finally, with you, we have about 30 seconds left. Each earthquake has its own personality because of how it reacts, the building and the codes around it. Is there somewhere we will see this earthquake devastation potentially again around the world?</s>BEREBICHEZ: It's a great question. We have the U.S. Geological Survey Institution researching and a lot of other scientists trying to figure out and getting better and better at predicting earthquakes, forecasting with probabilities the only thing we can do at the moment.</s>PEREIRA: The is no contending with Mother Nature. Deborah Berebichez, what a pleasure to meet you. Thank you so much for being here and walking us through the science -- Chris.</s>CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: No question, Mich. I mean, we have to understand what happened here, but the human catastrophe on that ground. We are just starting to see the effects of that. There is no question also that this is the worst earthquake in nearly a century. The need today, tomorrow, next week, for months to come is going to be great. We will tell you how you can help.