As quakes hit Nepal, scientists look deep underground for answers

Residents gather in an open area after an earthquake hit in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Tuesday. It was the second major earthquake in less than three weeks.

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Scientists are busy figuring out what's happening to cause the powerful quakes in Nepal, a country of massive mountain ranges and shifting continental plates.

Another massive earthquake has struck Nepal, the largest since the 7.8 magnitude temblor hit the country more than two weeks ago.

The latest 7.3 tremor hit near Mount Everest in a more rural region close to the border with China.

Aunohita Mojumdar, editor of Himal Magazine, lives in Kathmandu and felt the aftershock.

"I was in my office, which is on the fourth floor of the building. The building was really moving from left to right," said Mojumdar. "The intensity was much less than the big earthquake, but I think the fact that the aftershocks haven't stopped is driving people out."

Scientists are still busy figuring out what's happening to cause the powerful quakes in Nepal, a country of massive mountain ranges and shifting continental plates.

"It's the slow, steady crushing together of the India and Asia continental plates, so it's continent on continent collision," said Ken Hudnut, geophysicist at the US Geological Survey. "In the Himalaya, the reason the mountains are so huge is that the two continental plates are coming together and where they're doing that, it's pushing up the material in between in the collision zone."