Early Friday, a major 7.7 magnitude earthquake that originated near Mandalay, Myanmar, shook the Earth as far as Bangkok, about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) away.
Two hard-hit cities in Myanmar suffered extensive damage, with images from the capital, Naypyidaw, showing rescue crews pulling victims from the rubble of collapsed buildings. Authorities in Bangkok said deaths had occurred at three construction sites, including a high-rise that collapsed.
Experts say the earthquake, which occurred along the Sagaing Fault, was close to the Earth’s surface, generating intense seismic forces. Preliminary estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey show that nearly 800,000 people in Myanmar may have been within the zone of the most violent shaking and that death tolls exceeding 1,000 people, and perhaps much higher, are probable.
The Earth’s crust is broken up into several pieces called tectonic plates, which fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.
This formation is “mostly stable, but along the edges they are moving,” Columbia University geophysicist Michael Steckler said.
Pressure builds up when sliding plates get stuck, increasing “very slowly for decades or for hundreds of years, and then all of a sudden the rock plates will jump,” triggering shaking that causes an earthquake, Steckler said.
Earthquakes typically occur along edges of tectonic plates. But their impacts may be felt in a broader region.
Earthquakes that occur in the ocean don’t always attract attention, but those that occur close to where people live can cause deaths and injuries, most often from collapsed buildings.
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