Earthquake in Burma. Why was it so destructive?

The earthquake took place on Friday in central Burma. The shocks had 7.7 magnitude and were felt in the area from India to China and Thailand. The death of 144 people has been confirmed so far in Burmaat Thailand at least nine people were killed.

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The shocks occurred in the area near the border of tectonic, Indian and Eurasian plates. It was the strongest earthquake with an epicenter in Burma for over a century – according to the US geological service cited by the CNN station, only a magnitude of the 7.9 magnitude in 1912 was stronger.

As Grzegorz Lizurek from the Institute of Geophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences explained, Friday's earthquake appeared on a large fault. “If the energy accumulates on such a fault, whose slow movement on the fault plane cannot gradually free, at some point the energy stored in this system becomes greater than forces that counteract movement on the fault. Then the rocks and release of energy in the form of a very rapid movement along the stroke, and as a result of the storage of the stroke, and the release of energy, and as a result of the seymical waves” – explained the seismologist.

As he pointed out, in this case it was most likely a level of north-south levels, which was created as a result of movements on the border of tectonic plates. It happened at a depth of 10 kilometers. “It is such horizontal – and additionally shallow – movements are strongly felt on the surface. Shape shocks on sliding faults can cause direct deformation of the area on the surface,” he emphasized.

When asked about the possibility of anticipating the earthquakes of the seismologist, he emphasized that scientists can anticipate the quake, but not in the way that seems to be the most desirable, i.e. by giving the exact time and place of shock and its magnitude.

“Seismology operates the probability of a shock of a specific size in a given area and in a specific period of time. However, predicting that the shock will take place on a specific day and a specific place is impossible,” he said.

He added that the process of earthquakes occurs in a completely different time scale than a person can imagine. “Shocks are only a temporary effect of tectonic evolution – building stress in rocks, movement of continents, interaction of slabs, etc. These phenomena people observe and study instrumentally for about 200 years, which from the point of view of the evolution of the earth is just like a blink of an eye” – described Lizurek.