Latest news with #Thazi
Yahoo
19-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
First video of an earthquake fault cracking has revealed another surprise
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A first-of-its-kind video showing the ground cracking during a major earthquake is even more remarkable than previously thought. It not only captures a ground motion never caught on video before but also shows the crack curving as it moves. This curvy movement has been inferred from the geological record and from "slickenlines" — scrape marks on the sides of faults — but it had never been seen in action, geophysicist Jesse Kearse, a postdoctoral researcher currently at Kyoto University in Japan, said in a statement. "Instead of things moving straight across the video screen, they moved along a curved path that has a convexity downwards, which instantly started bells ringing in my head," Kearse said, "because some of my previous research has been specifically on curvature of fault slip, but from the geological record." The video — captured by a security camera near Thazi, Myanmar — shows the ground rupturing during a magnitude 7.7 quake that hit the region on March 28. It shows the ground shaking, followed by a crack opening up. These ground ruptures are relatively common during big quakes, but they'd never been caught on video. Kearse said he watched the video with chills down his spine shortly after it was uploaded to YouTube. On his fifth or sixth viewing, he noticed that the crack was curvy. He and his colleague at Kyoto University, geophysicist Yoshihiro Kaneko, then analyzed the video more closely. They found that the crack curves sharply at first and then accelerates to a peak velocity of about 10.5 feet per second (3.2 meters per second) of movement, slipping a total of 8.2 feet (2.5 meters) in 1.3 seconds. After hitting its top velocity, the crack straightens and slows. The findings suggest that the curvature happens because stresses on the fault right at the ground surface are lower than the stresses on the fault deeper in the Earth. This creates an uneven pattern in how the fault moves. "The curvature holds important information about the dynamics of the rupture," Kearse said in an annotated video of the slip he posted on YouTube. Related: The San Andreas Fault: Facts about the crack in California's crust that could unleash the 'Big One' The differing stresses at the surface push the fault off its course, "and then it catches itself and does what it's supposed to do," Kearse said in the statement. RELATED STORIES —'This is a very big earthquake': The science behind Myanmar's magnitude 7.7 earthquake —20 largest earthquakes in history —Scientists find hidden mechanism that could explain how earthquakes 'ignite' The dynamics of these curvatures depend in part on which way the rupture travels, so an understanding of the curves can reveal clues about how past earthquakes unfolded and help scientists better predict future ground ruptures. The research was published today (July 18) in the journal The Seismic Record. Editor's Note: This article was updated at 8:20 p.m. EDT to note that the new research has now been published in The Seismic Record.
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
First-of-its-kind video captures the terrifying moment the ground tore apart during major Myanmar earthquake
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A video showing the ground tearing apart in a major earthquake in Myanmar in March may be the first of its kind. The video captures a ground rupture, the ripping of Earth's crust all the way up to the surface, during a major earthquake. The magnitude 7.7 quake struck on March 28 at 12:50 p.m. local time and was felt as far away as Thailand. Nearly 5,500 people died. The video, posted on Facebook by Singaporean engineer Htin Aung, comes from GP Energy Myanmar's Thapyawa solar farm, located near the town of Thazi, according to Aung's post. The feed is centered on a concrete-and-metal gate, which shudders and slides open as the earth begins to move. About 14 seconds into the video, a crack opens across the driveway and yard outside the gate, with the ground literally pulling apart. "It's really kind of unsettling," said John Vidale, a seismologist at the University of Southern California Dornsife. Vidale told Live Science he knew of no other videos that show such a ground rupture. Rick Aster, a geophysicist at Colorado State University, concurred. "To my knowledge, this is the best video we have of a throughgoing surface rupture of a very large earthquake," Aster told Live Science. The Myanmar quake occurred on the Sagaing Fault between the Burma and Sunda tectonic plates, two minor tectonic plates. This fault slices through central Myanmar in a straight line, north to south. It's a transform fault, just like California's famous San Andreas, where the two plates move side by side against each other. The epicenter of the Myanmar quake, where the fault rupture started, was north of the location in the video, near the city of Mandalay. This rupture then propagated both north and south, cracking the ground all along the fault line. "The actual segment of the Earth that is slipping side to side goes from the surface down to maybe 20 or 30 kilometers [12 to 19 miles] depth," Aster said. Below that, the crust still moves, but the crust is more malleable and deforms rather than cracks. The shaking first seen in the video comes from the earthquake waves that speed out from the rupturing crack, Vidale said. Then, the rupture itself arrives. RELATED STORIES —The science behind Myanmar's magnitude 7.7 earthquake —Scientists find hidden mechanism that could explain how earthquakes 'ignite' —Huge earthquake 2,500 years ago rerouted the Ganges River, study suggests Seismologists get good measurements of such ruptures from seismic stations that use GPS to quantify even tiny movements of the crust. They also often do fieldwork to find evidence of ruptures after they happen, Aster said. "But we don't really understand the dynamics of what happened, exactly how things move," he said. The video might be useful for researchers who are trying to understand those unusual dynamics. "I have no doubt that seismologists will take a very close look at this," Aster said. "It will probably lead to some kind of a publication at some point, if the location and other details can be sorted out." Live Science reached out to Aung and to GP Energy Myanmar and will update this story with further details, if available.
