The Power of Tectonic Plates: Unleashing Destruction in Myanmar

The world’s highest mountain range – the Himalayas – is a testament to the power of plate tectonics. Forged upwards by the gradual northward push of the Indian plate into the Eurasian plate, it’s a power that’s almost impossible to imagine until just a tiny fraction of it is suddenly released. And that’s what happened just six miles beneath the feet of 1.2 million people living in the city of Mandalay and surrounding settlements. A fault line along that Indian-Eurasian plate boundary runs almost directly beneath the city in Myanmar. Over decades, as the plates grind past each other, tension builds up in the subsurface rock. When it finally gives, an earthquake is the result.

The magnitude 7.7 quake that struck Myanmar today is a prime example of this process. Such strike-slip faults, as they’re known, don’t generate the world’s most powerful earthquakes. That dubious honour goes to subduction zones in places like Sumatra and Japan that generate the magnitude 9 earthquakes that caused the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 or the Tohoku tsunami of 2011. A magnitude 7.7 quake is still extremely powerful and destructive if it occurs shallow in the Earth’s crust and close to population centres. Today’s quake did both.

Key Highlights:

• The earthquake struck 6 miles beneath Mandalay, a city of 1.2 million people
• The Indian-Eurasian plate boundary runs almost directly beneath the city
• The fault line is responsible for building tension in the subsurface rock
• The magnitude 7.7 quake is extremely powerful and destructive, especially when it occurs shallow in the Earth’s crust and close to population centres

Resilience in the Face of Disaster:

Recent history has an important role to play too. Large earthquakes in this region happen every decade or so. But the last one of this size in the Sagaing region was in 1946. That predates the development of modern earthquake building codes. Reconstruction in Mandalay and beyond after that event will have resulted in buildings constructed vulnerable to collapse from shaking of this magnitude – and possibly already weakened by previous events.

Conclusion:

The power of tectonic plates is a force to be reckoned with. As the world watches the destruction unfold in Myanmar, it’s a reminder of the importance of preparedness and resilience in the face of natural disasters. As the dust settles, the people of Myanmar will begin the long and arduous process of rebuilding and recovery.

Keywords:

• Tectonic plates
• Earthquake
• Myanmar
• Mandalay
• Indian-Eurasian plate boundary
• Strike-slip fault
• Magnitude 7.7
• Earthquake building codes
• Natural disasters
• Resilience

Hashtags:

• TectonicPlates

• Earthquake

• Myanmar

• Mandalay

• NaturalDisasters

• Resilience

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