Monday night’s 5.1-magnitude earthquake damaged several homes and religious buildings near Taikkyi Township in northern Yangon Region. 24 people – seven men and 17 women – were injured by the quake, according to Eleven.
Though the US Geological Survey reported a magnitude of 5.1, Myanmar’s Department of Meteorology and Hydrology reported it as 5.8.
The Myanmar Fire Services Department carried out rescue operations in the township after the initial quake, which was followed by a 4.7-magnitude aftershock a few hours later, according to the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology.
People around Yangon and Bago regions reported feeling the initial quake and the aftershock.
Dr Yin Myo Min Htwe, the department’s deputy director, told Eleven that this was the largest earthquake to ever hit Taikkyi township, which is located above a small fault.
“Only small earthquakes measuring around a magnitude of 3.0 have previously been recorded,” he said.
Yangon is located near the 1,200-kilometer Sagaing Fault, which stretches from the northwestern corner of Myanmar to the Martaban Gulf. A 7.3-magnitude quake killed about 500 people in Bago and 50 in Yangon in 1930.
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