3 World Massive Earthquakes That Could Hit Again Soon

On a quiet Friday just before lunch, on March 28, 2025, the city of Mandalay in central Myanmar was shattered by a sudden convulsion of the Earth. In an instant, the ground heaved violently, buildings swayed and cracked, and a powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake erupted along Myanmar's infamous Zagang Fault. Panicked residents fled into the streets as centuries-old pagodas crumbled and modern apartments pancaked. This was Myanmar's strongest quake in over a century, unleashing devastation not just in Myanmar but even toppling a high-rise under construction in Bangkok, Thailand, nearly 1,300 km away.

The disaster left over 1,600 people dead in Myanmar and thousands injured, with dozens more fatalities in neighboring Thailand. In the quake's aftermath, a haunting question loomed: Could another massive earthquake strike again soon? To answer that, we need to journey into the science of how this earthquake happened and explore whether the geological forces beneath Myanmar and South Asia are primed for a repeat performance.

It was just past 12:50 p.m. local time when the earthquake hit, centered near the Zagang–Mandalay region of Myanmar. The rupture tore along the Zagang Fault, a major crack in the Earth that runs under Myanmar, with the crust on either side sliding past in opposite directions. In geology terms, this was a strike-slip quake, the same style as California's famous San Andreas Fault, where two blocks of crust grind laterally against each other.

The shock was shallow—about 10 km deep—meaning the shaking at the surface was especially intense. In Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city close to the epicenter, residents described the ground motion like a giant wrestling the city. A rescue worker from a suburb of Mandalay said, "Our town looks like a collapsed city," estimating a fifth of the buildings were destroyed. Within minutes, iconic infrastructure lay in ruins. The historic AA Bridge over the Irrawaddy River had crumbled into the water. Roads ripped apart, and power lines were down.

The human toll was harrowing. In Myanmar, over 1,600 lives were lost and more than 3,000 people were injured. Amid the wreckage, it was the country's deadliest earthquake since 1930. Entire neighborhoods were reduced to rubble piles, and desperate search efforts unfolded as day turned to night.

The disaster struck at the worst possible time for Myanmar—a nation already grappling with a civil conflict and limited resources for emergency response. The chaos was compounded by disrupted communications; phone and internet networks went down, cutting off affected towns. Hospitals still standing overflowed with the injured. Yet the shockwaves did not stop at Myanmar's borders. Astonishingly, the quake’s tremors rippled through the ground and were felt in 57 provinces of Thailand, as well as in parts of China, India, and Bangladesh.

In Bangkok, nearly 1,000 km away, high-rise buildings shook long enough to send people running out in panic—some in nothing but bathrobes after evacuating rooftop pools when water began sloshing over the edges. One 33-story skyscraper under construction in Bangkok collapsed entirely, killing at least eight workers and trapping dozens under concrete and twisted steel. The Myanmar–Thailand earthquake of 2025 was a grim reminder of the forces our planet can unleash. But what exactly caused this quake—and why here? To understand that, we must peer beneath the surface of Myanmar into the slow-motion drama of colliding tectonic plates that had been building up to this very rupture.

00:00 Intro
00:06 Another Earthquake Like Myanmar Could Strike Again Soon
15:56 Kermadec Island -The World's Next Mega Earthquake Could Happen Here
32:34 Santorini's Ticking Time Bomb, The Hidden Threat It’s Not Just Earthquakes

#downtherabbithole #bigone #earthquake