Earthquake experts say they don’t expect any upcoming major earthquakes from the fault that caused Monday night’s 5.1-magnitude quake because the fault had previously been inactive for 80 years.
This week’s quake struck near Taikkyi Township in northern Yangon Region and was followed by several weaker tremors, altogether damaging several buildings and injuring 26 people.
“We believe the fault in the western Bago mountain range caused the earthquake. According to our records, the fault has not been very active recently. In the past, it would trigger one or two tremors around magnitude 5.0 each year. The March 13 quake was followed by three or four weaker tremors, so I don’t think there will be any more major earthquakes,” announced the Myanmar Earthquake Committee.
The committee has warned the 1,500-kilometer Sagaing Fault, which stretches from northern Myanmar to the Gulf of Martaban, can trigger earthquakes as powerful as magnitude 7.0.
Yangon is located near a section of the Sagaing Fault, and many fear that it would be badly damaged by such a quake.
The same fault caused 7.3-magnitude earthquake in 1930 that killed 50 people in Yangon and 500 in Bago.
Myanmar has five major fault lines, putting it at relatively high risk of earthquake damage. The Sagaing Fault was last active in 2011. The other four faults are the Kabaw Fault in west, the Kyaukkyan Fault in northern Shan State, the Thanlwin Fault under the Thanlwin River and the Rakhine Fault in Rakhine State.
A 6.8-magnitude quake struck 25 kilometers west of Chauk in Magwe Region on August 24 and damaged hundreds of ancient pagodas in Bagan.
The Myanmar Earthquake Committee, Yangon City Development Committee and the UN held talks in December to organize a seismic-resistance test on 50 buildings in Yangon.
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