Geologists say it is only a matter of time before a major earthquake hits Nepal’s densely populated capital Kathmandu, where 2.5mn people live in cramped, poorly-built housing with little or no awareness of the dangers. Nepal sits on the border between two huge plates that have moved together over millions of years to form the Himalayas. Geologists believe it is at risk from an earthquake with a magnitude of around eight - 10 times as powerful as the Haiti shock that killed more than 212,000 people. Nepal has not suffered a major quake for decades, and expert David Petley believes the troubled country is woefully unprepared. “From a geological perspective the risk seems to be very large indeed,” said Petley, Wilson professor of hazard and risk at Britain’s Durham University. “The area to the west of Kathmandu is undergoing the processes that drive earthquakes, and there has not been a quake on that section of the fault for hundreds of years.