Another Earthquake Like Myanmar Could Strike 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 Sagaing 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.


00:00 intro
1:18 What happened in Myanmar (strike-slip quake)
3:54 tectonic plates
6:30 the Sagaing fault
9:10 What happened in the south part of the fault
12:10 the Alpide belt
13:23 Sunda- megathrust

#downtherabbithole #myanmarearthquake #earthquakescience