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by dendrite9 445 days ago
That straight line in the map doesn't look like the maps for any earthquakes I've felt. It looks like it was on the Sagaing Fault which is a different type of fault from the ones I've experienced.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagaing_Fault
2 comments
dnawy 445 days ago
2023 Turkey-Syria Earthquake has a ShakeMap similar to this event [1]; We often think of the epicenter as a single point in earth where the energy then radiates outward. In reality, a fault is more similar to line [2]. The energy radiates outward around the entire fault line.

(Note: since earthquake magnitude is correlated with the amount of area moved, it is safe to assume that larger earthquake will have larger fault rupture)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Turkey%E2%80%93Syria_eart... [2] https://earth-planets-space.springeropen.com/articles/10.118...

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SpicyUme 445 days ago
Interesting, the idea that a fault is a more of a line source makes sense it is hard for me to think of a way to have a single point source slip with enough energy. I guess I've thought in subduction faults the depth of the slip might explain why there is a point source. For example in the Pacific Northwest the earthquake from the Juan de Fuca plate look to be substantially deeper than this one. (50km vs 10km) Of course I expect the depth from today to be preliminary and be adjusted later, I can see the extent of red region in the shakemap changed to be longer from when I looked at it an hour or two ago.

Do you know if the line source model comes from having more and better seismographs or has there been a change in how people think about the motion of a fault in an earthquake?

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baq 445 days ago
quoting from the 'Hazard' section:

> The length of fault running 260 km (160 mi) from 19.2°N to 21.5°N, on the Meiktila segment, is designated a seismic gap due to the absence of major earthquake ruptures since at least 1897. At least 2 m (6 ft 7 in) of slip has accumulated along the fault corresponding to a magnitude 7.9 earthquake.

Science did pretty well here with the magnitude. Wonder how much more research is needed to be able to predict an event let's say a full minute before it happens...

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