'Quiet For 200 Years...': Scientist Says Myanmar's Earthquake Wasn't Unexpected, Explains 'Seismic Hazard'
Myanmar Earthquake: The earthquakes occurred along a segment of the Sagaing Fault, a major geological fault line that has historically seen big earthquakes, the scientist said.
A scientist at the Earth Observatory of Singapore said that Myanmar earthquakes were not out of the blue. Magnitude 7.7 and 6.4 earthquakes struck Myanmar, rocking Thailand and its capital Bangkok as well. Tremors were also felt in some provinces of China.
The first temblor hit 16km (10 miles) northwest of the city of Sagaing at a depth of 10km (6 miles) at about 12:50pm (06:20 GMT), the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.
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The earthquakes occurred along a segment of the Sagaing Fault, a major geological fault line that has historically seen big earthquakes, Calling Myanmar a “seismic hazard", Shengji Wei, principal investigator at the Earth Observatory of Singapore, said that the region has been quiet for about 200 years but investigations indicated that this segment of the fault is likely to experience a significant earthquake soon.
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“It has been quiet since about 200 years ago. Based on these historical studies as well as modern geophysical investigations, we (knew) that this place, this segment of the fault, (was) likely to rupture as a big earthquake in the near future," Shengji Wei said.
He also stated that he had informed the Myanmar government and local scientists about this risk.
Read more: Myanmar-Thailand Earthquake In Numbers: 7.7 Magnitude, 3 Aftershocks, 59 Killed, 800,000 Jolted
Marie Manrique of the Red Cross said that the organisation anticipates the impact to be “quite large". She said, “Public infrastructure has been damaged including roads, bridges and public buildings. We currently have concerns for large scale dams that people are watching to see the conditions of them."
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