The 1988 Myanmar–India earthquake, also known as the Indo–Burma earthquake struck the

Sagaing Region Sagaing Region ( my, စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Sagaing Division) is an administrative region of Myanmar, located in the north-western part of the country between latitude 21° 30' north and lon ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

, about from the border with

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

on 6 August at 7:06 am MMT with a moment magnitude () of 7.3 or

Richter magnitude The Richter scale —also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale—is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Francis Richter and presented in his landmark 1935 ...

() of 7.5. At least five people were killed, more than 30 were injured, and another 30 were missing as a result. Serious damage was reported in India and Bangladesh, while some minor damage occurred in Myanmar. The earthquake was reportedly felt in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

Tectonic setting

Myanmar lies at region where the

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

and

Eurasian Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago ...

plates collide; with the Burma Plate wedged between. The north-northeast motion of the Indian Plate towards the Eurasian Plate has resulted in the formation of two major plate boundaries along the Burma Plate; the

Sagaing Fault The Sagaing Fault is a major fault in Burma, a mainly continental right-lateral transform fault between the Indian Plate and Sunda Plate. It links the divergent boundary in the Andaman Sea with the zone of active continental collision along the ...

to the east, and a complex

convergent boundary A convergent boundary (also known as a destructive boundary) is an area on Earth where two or more Plate tectonics, lithospheric plates collide. One plate eventually slides beneath the other, a process known as subduction. The subduction zone can ...

accommodating

oblique subduction Oblique subduction is a form of subduction (i.e. a tectonic process involving the convergence of two plates where the denser plate descends into Earth's interior) for which the convergence direction differs from 90° to the plate boundary. Most c ...

of the Indian Plate beneath Myanmar.

Subduction Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, the ...

of the Indian Plate occur along the Arakan Megathrust; the northern continuation of the

Sunda Megathrust The Sunda megathrust is a fault (geology), fault that extends approximately 5,500 km (3300 mi) from Burma, Myanmar (Burma) in the north, running along the southwestern side of Sumatra, to the south of Java and Bali before terminating ne ...

; capable of generating an earthquake greater than magnitude 8.0. The 8.5–8.8 Arakan earthquake of 1762 is believed to be a thrusting earthquake on the Arakan Megathrust. Intermediate-depth intraslab earthquakes occur as a result of faulting within the subducting Indian Plate beneath the Burma Plate. These earthquakes have hypocenter depths that range from to greater than . Earthquakes including the 7.0 1975 Bagan earthquake, as well as the

April April is the fourth month of the year in the Gregorian and Julian calendars. It is the first of four months to have a length of 30 days, and the second of five months to have a length of less than 31 days. April is commonly associated with ...

and

August August is the eighth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, and the fifth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. Its zodiac sign is Leo and was originally named ''Sextilis'' in Latin because it was the 6th month in ...

earthquakes of 2016 were associated with intermediate-depth intraslab activity.

Earthquake

The earthquake had an epicenter location in a remote and sparsely populated area, more than from

Mandalay Mandalay ( or ; ) is the second-largest city in Myanmar, after Yangon. Located on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, 631km (392 miles) (Road Distance) north of Yangon, the city has a population of 1,225,553 (2014 census). Mandalay was fo ...

, Myanmar and

Shillong Shillong () is a hill station and the capital of Meghalaya, a Indian state, state in northeastern India, which means "The Abode of Clouds". It is the headquarters of the East Khasi Hills district. Shillong is the list of most populous cities in ...

. Many small settlements however, including Homalin,

Maungkan Maungkan is a village on the Chindwin River in Homalin Township, Hkamti District, in the Sagaing Region of northwestern Burma. It is located next to Chaungson and south of Tason Tason is a village on the Chindwin River in Homalin Township, Hk ...

, Man Thi and

Kawya Kawya is a village on the Chindwin River in Homalin Township, Hkamti District, in the Sagaing Region of northwestern Burma. It is located north of the town of Homalin and south of Maungkan Maungkan is a village on the Chindwin River in Homal ...

were in close proximity to the location of the quake. West of where the earthquake nucleated, lies the

Chin Hills The Chin Hills are a range of mountains in Chin State, northwestern Burma, Burma (Myanmar), that extends northward into India's Manipur state. Geography The highest peak in the Chin Hills is Khonu Msung, or Mount Victoria, in southern Chin State ...

- Arakan Range, a mountain belt formed by the collision of the

and Burma Plate, similar to the

continental collision In geology, continental collision is a phenomenon of plate tectonics that occurs at convergent boundaries. Continental collision is a variation on the fundamental process of subduction, whereby the subduction zone is destroyed, mountains prod ...

seen in the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

. The

focal mechanism The focal mechanism of an earthquake describes the deformation in the source region that generates the seismic waves. In the case of a fault-related event it refers to the orientation of the fault plane that slipped and the slip vector and is ...

of this event indicated oblique-reverse faulting at an intermediate depth of 90 km within the Indian Plate.

Impact

Two people were killed, 30 were injured and another 30 were missing in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

after

seiche A seiche ( ) is a standing wave in an enclosed or partially enclosed body of water. Seiches and seiche-related phenomena have been observed on lakes, reservoirs, swimming pools, bays, harbors, caves and seas. The key requirement for formation o ...

s formed in the

Jamuna River The Jamuna River ( bn, যমুনা ''Jomuna'') is one of the three main rivers of Bangladesh. It is the lower stream of the Brahmaputra River, which originates in Tibet as Yarlung Tsangpo, before flowing into India and then southwest into ...

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...

, causing a ferry boat to capsize. An additional two lost their lives in Northern India. Large-scale landslides, fissures and liquefaction events were reported in India and Bangladesh.

Subsidence Subsidence is a general term for downward vertical movement of the Earth's surface, which can be caused by both natural processes and human activities. Subsidence involves little or no horizontal movement, which distinguishes it from slope move ...

of was recorded in Gauhati, India. It was felt throughout Bangladesh and northeastern India, including

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

. The earthquake was also felt in parts of northwestern Myanmar and

Kathmandu , pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = Bagmati Prov ...

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

. Shaking from the earthquake caused significant damage to human infrastructures, railroads, and roadways. Shaking from the earthquake was felt throughout northeast India with a Modified Mercalli intensity of VII (''Very strong''). In

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

, India, severe liquefaction severely damaged roads and bridges in the

National Highway 37 The following highways are numbered 37: Australia * Newcastle Inner City Bypass * Nubeena Road (TAS) Canada * Alberta Highway 37 * British Columbia Highway 37 * Winnipeg Route 37 * Ontario Highway 37 * Saskatchewan Highway 37 * Yukon Highway 3 ...

system. Hotel Regale in

Silchar Silchar is a city and the headquarters of the Cachar district of the state of Assam, India. It is located south east of Guwahati. It was founded by Captain Thomas Fisher in 1832 when he shifted the headquarters of Cachar to Janiganj in Silchar. ...

suffered extensive damage due to

liquefaction In materials science, liquefaction is a process that generates a liquid from a solid or a gas or that generates a non-liquid phase which behaves in accordance with fluid dynamics. It occurs both naturally and artificially. As an example of the ...

; subsiding floors and cracked walls. Many aged or traditional structures not made to withstand an earthquake were damaged beyond repair. A section of an embankment slumped away, leaving a railroad between Borlongphar and Langchiliet hanging 8 meters above the ground. On August 21 that same year, a smaller but deadlier magnitude 6.9 earthquake would affect the India and Nepal region, killing at least 721 people.

Tectonic setting

Earthquake

Impact

See also

References

Further reading