Automatic assessments from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses.
Myanmar's ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had passed 1,000, with more than 2,000 injured.
The USGS offered a similar likelihood that the financial damage could total tens of thousands of millions of dollars, warning that it might exceed the GDP of Myanmar.
Dangerous fault
A 6.7-magnitude aftershock struck minutes after the first and McGuire warned that “more can be expected”.
This is where the Indian tectonic plate, to the west, meets the Sunda plate that forms much of Southeast Asia -- a fault similar in scale and movement to the San Andreas Fault in California.
Earthquakes in such cases can be “particularly destructive”, Bell added, explaining that since the quake takes place at a shallow depth, its seismic energy has dissipated little by the time it reaches populated areas above.
Building boom
There have been more than 14 earthquakes with a magnitude of 6 or above in the past century, including a magnitude 6.8 earthquake near Mandalay in 1956, said Brian Baptie, a seismologist with the British Geological Survey.
Myanmar has been riven by years of conflict and there is a low level of building design enforcement.
“Today’s earthquake is the first test of modern Myanmar’s infrastructure against a large, shallow-focus earthquake close to its major cities.”
“The usual mantra is that ‘earthquakes don’t kill people; collapsing infrastructure does’,“ said Ilan Kelman, an expert in disaster reduction at UCL.
Skyscraper checks
Christian Malaga-Chuquitaype, from ICL's civil and environmental engineering department, said the nature of the ground in Bangkok contributed to the impact on the city, despite being some 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from the epicentre in Myanmar.
Malaga-Chuquitaype said the construction techniques in Bangkok favouring “flat slabs” -- where floors are held only by columns without using strengthening beams, like a table supported only by legs -- were a “problematic design”.
“It performs poorly during earthquakes, often failing in a brittle and sudden (almost explosive) manner,“ he said.
Bangkok city authorities said they will deploy more than 100 engineers to inspect buildings for safety after receiving more than 2,000 reports of damage.
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