ExplainedEarthquakes
Why Tibet keeps shaking, and what Thursday's earthquake says about India's own risk
A magnitude 7 quake killed at least 16 people in Tibet's Baqen county this week, 21 months after one near Everest killed 126. Why the plateau is so active, how the Himalaya differs, and what became of India's tougher quake map.
The short answer
Tibet sits on top of the slow collision between the Indian and Eurasian plates, which has thickened and raised the plateau and keeps stretching it east to west, so it breaks along faults that produce frequent strong earthquakes. The Himalaya, on India's side of that collision, is capable of quakes above magnitude 8, and scientists warn that parts of it are overdue. A new building code that put the whole Himalayan arc in a new highest-risk zone was released in November 2025 but withdrawn in March 2026, and the 2016 code still applies.
What happened in Tibet this week?
A shallow magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck a remote part of Baqen county late on Thursday 22 October, killing at least 16 people.
The quake hit at 10:33 pm local time in Maru township, about 390 km northeast of Lhasa, at a depth of about 10 km, according to the US Geological Survey. Chinese state television said 46 people were injured and 339 houses collapsed or were damaged. Power and phone lines in the county seat went down. No damage was reported in India or Nepal.
It was the second magnitude 7 earthquake in Tibet in less than two years. On 7 January 2025 a magnitude 7.1 quake in Tingri county, close to the Nepal border and Mount Everest, killed 126 people by the official count, and Tibetan sources put the toll higher.
Why is Tibet so prone to earthquakes?
Because it is being squeezed by India.
The Indian plate is pushing north into the Eurasian plate. That collision built the Himalaya and thickened the crust under Tibet, lifting the plateau so high that the area around Tingri sits at about 4,500 metres. The pressure has not stopped, and the plateau has to make room for it.
One way it does so is by spreading sideways. Much of southern Tibet is being stretched from east to west, and it breaks along faults that run north to south. When rock on either side of such a fault slips, it produces what geologists call normal-faulting earthquakes. The Tingri quake was one of these. Elsewhere on the plateau, blocks of crust slide past each other along long strike-slip faults, and those have produced Tibet’s largest quakes, of around magnitude 8.
Why do shallow quakes do so much damage?
Because the energy is released close to the surface. Both the Tingri and Baqen quakes began only about 10 km underground. A shallow quake shakes the ground hard over a wide area. In Baqen, more than 300 houses came down, some roofs caved in and walls cracked at the township office.
Two Tibet earthquakes, 21 months apart
Can a Tibet earthquake hurt India?
It can be felt in India, but the bigger danger lies closer to home.
The Tingri quake injured 13 people in Nepal and sent residents of Kathmandu, about 400 km away, running from their homes. In India it slightly damaged several houses in Samastipur in Bihar and was felt in Assam and West Bengal. Baqen, much farther north and east, was not reported to have affected India.
The more serious threat is on the Indian side of the collision. The Himalayan arc, from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh, is capable of earthquakes above magnitude 8. The 2015 Nepal earthquake struck about 171 km south of Tingri.
Why do scientists say parts of the Himalaya are overdue?
Because some sections of the main fault have been locked for a very long time.
Vineet Gahalaut, director of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology in Dehradun, has said that long-locked sections of the Himalayan megathrust, the great fault beneath the mountains, have not produced a major rupture in nearly two centuries and keep building up stress. Parts of the central Himalaya, especially between Uttarakhand and western Nepal, have been described as overdue for a large earthquake that breaks the surface. Dense settlement and loose enforcement of building rules in the hills add to the danger.
What happened to India’s new earthquake map?
It was released, then withdrawn.
In November 2025 the Bureau of Indian Standards issued a revised earthquake design code, IS 1893 of 2025, with a new seismic map. It created a new highest-risk Zone VI covering the entire Himalayan arc, which had earlier been split between Zones IV and V, and placed about 61% of India in moderate to high hazard zones. Towns on the border between two zones were to be put in the higher one.
About three months later the code was pulled back; the bureau confirmed the withdrawal in a gazette notification dated 3 March 2026. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs had raised concerns that there had not been enough consultation, and there were worries about higher building costs and whether the Zone VI rules could be put into practice when compliance with existing rules was already low. The 2016 version of the code applies.
What does that leave?
The same gap between knowing the risk and building for it. The withdrawal changed the map, not the geology. Whatever zone a hill town sits in, the protection comes from whether its houses, schools and hospitals are actually built and checked to the code that exists. Thursday’s quake struck a thinly populated part of Tibet. The same shaking under a crowded Himalayan town would be a different story.