Global seismologists learn from Myanmar’s rapidly-ruptured Sagaing fault
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Htet Nadi/Cherry (NP News) - August 27
The Sagaing Fault has become a case study for seismologists around the world, and comparative studies are underway, Dr. Yin Myo Min Htwe, deputy director of the Earthquake Division of the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology, told The Statesman.
Seismologists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have issued a statement saying that, based on recent comparisons with the Sagaing Fault, the San Andreas Fault in California, USA, is unlikely to be an exact replay of the rupture in the expected pattern of tectonic plate movement.
Additionally, a research team used satellite imagery and computer models to predict the movement of fault lines, and found that faults like the Sagaing Fault and the San Andreas Fault generate earthquakes that are more widespread than previously documented, according to a report in the journal PNAS.
“The Mandalay earthquake, caused by the Sagaing Fault, propagated its rupture very quickly over a short period of time. Because of this, regions along the fault tend to experience significant damage. This phenomenon is known worldwide as a ‘super shear.’ In many earthquake-prone areas such as the United States, studies are often conducted using the Mandalay earthquake as a reference. In this case, the rupture propagated extremely rapidly, which makes such events of great interest to mostseismologists,” said Dr. Yin Myo Min Htwe.
The length of the surface rupture in the Mandalay earthquake stretched 400-500 kilometers along the fault from upper Mandalay to lower Pyu Township, and this event provides a very valuable dataset for most seismologists, said Deputy Director Dr. Yin Myo Min Htwe.
"For most seismologists, this is a very helpful experience for research and for planning future preparedness activities related to this earthquake, because they will have similar experiences in the future," Dr. Yin Myo Min Htwe stated. When The Statesman asked if the pattern of the Mandalay earthquake could serve as a global lesson, he replied, ‘Yes, absolutely.’ –