Why was the earthquake so devastating in Myanmar and Thailand?
A magnitude 7.7 earthquakes in Myanmar caused widespread shock and potentially damage because due to lack of buildings constructed to withstand the templaters
A resident takes the goods above the debris next to a damaged building on March 28, 2025 after an earthquake in Central Myanmar.
Sai Aung Main/AFP through Getty Image
On March 28, around local time, tens of million people in Southeast Asia violently broke the Earth under their feet. A magnitude 7.7 Earthquakes, Mandalay, Centered just 12 miles from Myanmar, shook the region – on the streets to buckle, to uproot the ancient pagoda, to shatter the bridge and to collapse homes. The entire neighborhood was destroyed in a second case.
Earthquake energy release was compared to several hundred nuclear weapons explosions. “The magnitude of this incident was so high that it was felt in neighboring countries,” Amillar carraera-sevlosAn earthquake scientist at the Visant Rokafuart Secular University of Guiyakil in Ecuador. At a distance of 600 miles from the sub-centers of the 30-storey skyscraper under construction in Bangkok-DisintegratedAs Estimate By the US Geological Survey, there will be no thousands of thousands of number, with the number of casualties as well as economic loss of billions of billions of dollars.
Many factors conspired to make this earthquake a disaster, including a lack of earthquake-proof measures in buildings throughout the region. Some structures could withstand this demon of a templer, which was a “really large, shallow earthquake” – it became relatively closer to the Earth’s surface, Judith hubardAn earthquake scientist at Cornell University.
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What happened due to Myanmar’s earthquake?
About 45 million years ago, the Indian tectonic plate collided with the Eurasian plate, before the east began to land. The crust that is uprooted in the middle is what we today refer to as the Himalayas. This mountain range, and the entire region, is filled with defects generated by that epic geological pileup. The Indian plate is still running very slowly in Eurasia, and those innumerable defects resulted in a lot of stress. From time to time, they break down.
The incident of March 28 was especially Gargantuan breakdown with a specific scholars. “All available data so far suggest a breakdown at firmly relaxed mistake,” says Robin lacasinAn earthquake scientist in the Paris Institute of Earth Physics. This is a major north-south “Strike-slip” mistakeIn which two blocks of crust slide each other (slightly like San Andreas Fault in California). Laikasin says, “Teak Fault” is the main strike-slip border on that side of the Indian plate. “And this” has been responsible for many strong and destructive earthquakes in the past. “
Cars pass through a damaged road in Naypidav on March 28, 2025 after an earthquake in Central Myanmar.
Sai Aung Main/AFP through Getty Image
Hubard states that, in May 2023, a lot of fault broke and arose Quantity 5.8 TemplarThe cause of a minor degree of destruction. This is a particularly dangerous mistake, not at least because Naye Pai Taw, the capital of Myanmar, directly moves it up.
Today’s magnitude 7.7 breakdown was more powerful than the 2023 incident. Earthquake measured Revised Mercalli intensity Scale, which detects the intensity of tremors based on surface observations. Around one million people felt the earthquake as IX, or “violent,”, many buildings were not just damaged, but it was also thrown about it, some were really moved by their foundations.
Rank shocks such as “severe” or “very strong”, slightly away from the epicenter and the audience in Thailand were surprised that there is also damage to buildings there. Initial data suggests that seismic waves have traveled from the source so far as they were broadcast with the southern part of the teak fault. “This would explain the loss in Bangkok and report that it was felt far away,” says Carreera-Savlos.
Why was Myanmar’s earthquake so harmful?
Such earthquakes are a terrible reminder of why disasters cannot be called a purely “natural”. Today’s earthquake was powerful, yes – but blast zone cities did not give a chance due to a human factor. “The earthquake occurred in an area with no earthquake resistant buildings and insufficient building codes,” Carreera-Savlos.
Although you cannot design a building to guarantee that it will catch against the most powerful of the earthquake, you can fit the dampenners in their architecture to allow them to safely “dominate” in the event of a templer. Even chronic structures can be retrofitted to include various forms of earthquake-resistant technology.
The disadvantage in Thailand is shocking, but unlikely to be very serious. The tremors were less intense than Myanmar, and in Thailand, the collapse of the collapse of the high-growing skyscraper was under construction, so it is probably an exterior. “We can expect a lot of bad in Myanmar,” says Hubard.
Myanmar Political situation Will work against its recovery efforts. In 2021, a military coup and an ongoing civil war had already displaced millions of people from their homes. This earthquake is dramatically going to increase the number that already enhances a broad humanitarian crisis. Strong afterchox will shake cities, towns and villages for the coming several weeks, as well as disrupting potential chaotic recovery efforts.
