Aftershocks likely after Myanmar quake
Myanmar should prepare for possible aftershocks following the powerful earthquake that struck the country on Friday, a German geophysicist said. "We assume that aftershocks will occur. This is a typical process," said Oliver Heidbach from the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences in the eastern German city of Potsdam.
GFZ scientists said a series of aftershocks with magnitudes of between 6 and 6.5 is possible in the coming hours or days, with the quakes decreasing in number and strength over time. Alternatively, there could be a second strong earthquake, they said.
Heidbach warned that seismic waves generated by strong aftershocks could hit buildings that have already been damaged, making rescue work more difficult and dangerous.
The GFZ estimated the magnitude of Friday's initial earthquake at 7.6, with the epicentre at a depth of around 20 kilometres, according to its preliminary analysis. The epicentre of Friday's earthquake was near the city of Mandalay in Myanmar, but the quake was also felt in Thailand and other countries.
A second earthquake hit the area minutes later, measured at a magnitude of 6.4 by the United States Geological Survey.
The epicentre of the first earthquake was located on a fault that absorbs the movement of the Indian tectonic plate, which straddles the equator, Heidbach explained. He said the area is hit by strong earthquakes roughly every 100 years. Heidbach said it was too early to assess the consequences of the earthquake.
The quake was also felt in Thailand's capital Bangkok as well as in parts of China and India. There were no initial reports of injuries or deaths from those countries.
Meanwhile, Myanmar's ruling military general on Friday invited 'any country' to provide help and donations following a major earthquake that killed 144 people, warning there would be more deaths and casualties.
Min Aung Hlaing on state television said he had opened routes for international assistance and had accepted offers of help from India and the Southeast Asian bloc Asean.
The Red Cross in Myanmar has reported devastating damage following strong earthquakes. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has spoken to staff in the affected region, according to the IFRC programme manager on the ground, Marie Manrique.
There is great concern that dams on the Irrawaddy River may have been damaged and could break. According to Manrique, 18.5 million people live in the affected area near the city of Sagaing, where two quakes — of an estimated magnitude of 7.7 and 6.4 — were recorded.
According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), around 1.6 million of the 3.5 million displaced people in Myanmar live in the region hit by the earthquake. "We are very concerned about the possible humanitarian consequences," said Manrique. "We expect a lot of people to be injured." — Agencies
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Observer
02-06-2025
- Observer
India landslide kills three soldiers
NEW DELHI: Torrential rains in northeast India resulted in a deadly landslide that crushed and killed three soldiers with six more missing, the Indian army said on Monday. Flash floods and landslides in the annual monsoon rains have killed at least 30 people in India's northeast states in the past week. The landslide that killed the soldiers took place on Sunday evening in the mountainous state of Sikkim, which shares a border with Nepal and China, and hosts a large military presence. The army said in a statement that the "massive landslide, triggered by heavy rains, struck an army camp" around dusk on Sunday. The army posted pictures on social media showing a swath of earth that had semi-submerged a building, and left a giant mud gash on a hillside. Flash floods are common during the monsoon season, which usually begins in June and eases by the end of September. — AFP
Observer
01-06-2025
- Observer
India's monsoon rains kill at least 30 in northeast
Flash floods and landslides after torrential monsoon rain over the last two days killed at least 30 people in India's northeast, officials said Sunday. State disaster management officials said eight people died in Assam, and nine in Arunachal Pradesh, many of them in landslides as earth loosened by the water slumped into the valley below. Another five people died in a landslide in the neighbouring state of Mizoram, state authorities said. The officials said that six people lost their lives in Meghalaya and at least two others were killed in the states of Nagaland and Tripura. A red alert warning was issued for several districts in the region after the non-stop downpour over the last three days. Rivers swollen by the lashing rain -- including the mighty Brahmaputra, which rises in the Himalayas and flows through India's northeast towards its delta in Bangladesh -- broke their banks across the region. The Indian army said that it had saved hundreds "in a massive rescue operation" across Manipur state. "People have been shifted to safer places", the army said on Saturday. "Food, water and essential medicines were provided." Conrad K Sangma, the chief minister of Meghalaya state, has ordered officials to remain on high alert "especially in landslide-prone and low-lying areas", he said in a statement. Scores of people die each year during the rainy season due to flash floods and landslides across India, a country of 1.4 billion people. India's annual monsoon season from June to September offers respite from the intense summer heat and is crucial for replenishing water supplies, but also brings widespread death and destruction. South Asia is getting hotter and in recent years has seen shifting weather patterns, but scientists are unclear on how exactly a warming planet is affecting monsoons. Last month, India's financial capital Mumbai was swamped by monsoon rain that began two weeks earlier than usual, the earliest for nearly a quarter of a century, according to weather forecasters.
Observer
23-05-2025
- Observer
Inside a harrowing, hail-damaged flight: ‘We thought it was our last'
Sheikh Samiullah, a frequent flyer, thought nothing of it when he heard the pilot of his flight tell passengers to fasten their seat belts and ask the cabin crew to be seated. But within minutes, the plane encountered a severe hailstorm and suddenly plunged. Samiullah and other passengers aboard the Wednesday flight by an IndiGo passenger jet traveling from the Indian capital of New Delhi to Srinagar, in the Kashmir region, started screaming and shouting. Even the flight attendants were crying, he said. 'They were calling their gods, we were calling our gods,' Samiullah, 33, said of the passengers shouting prayers in Hindi and Arabic. 'We thought it was our last flight; we thought we were going to die.' The plane jolted upward and from side to side, and then plunged again, over a period of five to six minutes, Samiullah recounted. He was sure the plane would crash into the mountains below or be struck by the lightning visible from the windows. A video that Samiullah, the CEO of a logistics company, posted on social media showed terrified passengers exclaiming as the plane jolted. 'Nobody was expecting we would go for a safe landing,' he said. But about 20 minutes after all the turmoil and fright, the plane landed safely. As passengers deplaned, they noticed a large chunk of the plane's nose was missing, apparently damaged by the hail. IndiGo said in a statement Wednesday that the flight had encountered a 'sudden hailstorm.' It added: 'The flight and cabin crew followed established protocol, and the aircraft landed safely in Srinagar.' Hail and turbulence — or unstable air movement caused by changes in wind speed and direction — are the greatest hazards to aircraft during thunderstorms, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Hail can freeze onto other pieces of hail, sometimes growing into a huge ice ball. Hailstones larger than half an inch in diameter can 'significantly damage an aircraft in a few seconds,' the agency said. Hail can occur even in clear air several miles from a thunderstorm. Passenger aircraft are not designed to absorb large hailstone impacts without damage, Airbus said in its Safety First magazine. Extreme hailstorms can lead to loss of visibility, unreliable air data or engine failure, and the best way to avoid them is to rely on weather radars. Last year, a 73-year-old British man died and dozens were injured when a Singapore Airlines plane hit intense turbulence 10 hours into a flight from London to Singapore. The plane rose unexpectedly by 362 feet, likely because of an updraft, and sped up unexpectedly. Pilots manually hit the brakes in response, and the plane lost about 178 feet of altitude in less than five seconds. This article originally appeared in
