The 1839 Ava earthquake, also known as the Amarapura earthquake or Inwa earthquake was a disastrous seismic event that struck central

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 ...

on the morning of March 23. This earthquake with a

moment magnitude The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pape ...

as high as 8.3, was one of the biggest in the country since 1762. Shaking reached XI (''Extreme'') on the

Modified Mercalli intensity scale The Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MM, MMI, or MCS), developed from Giuseppe Mercalli's Mercalli intensity scale of 1902, is a seismic intensity scale used for measuring the intensity of shaking produced by an earthquake. It measures the eff ...

, and was felt in

Rangoon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

and

Bhamo Bhamo ( my, ဗန်းမော်မြို့ ''ban: mau mrui.'', also spelt Banmaw; shn, မၢၼ်ႈမူဝ်ႇ; tdd, ᥛᥫᥒᥰ ᥛᥨᥝᥱ; zh, 新街, Hsinkai) is a city in Kachin State in northern Myanmar, south of the ...

Tectonic setting

Burma is wedged between four tectonic plates; 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 ...

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

Sunda Sunda may refer to: Europe * Sunda, Faroe Islands India * Sunda (asura), an asura brother of Upasunda * Sunda (clan), a clan (gotra) of Jats in Haryana and Rajasthan, India Southeast Asia * Sundanese (disambiguation) ** Sundanese people ...

and

Burma plate The Burma Plate is a minor tectonic plate or microplate located in Southeast Asia, sometimes considered a part of the larger Eurasian Plate. The Andaman Islands, Nicobar Islands, and northwestern Sumatra are located on the plate. This island arc ...

s that interact due to active

geological processes Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Eart ...

. Along the west coast of the Coco Islands, off the Rahkine coast, and into

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 ...

, is a highly oblique

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 ...

known as 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 ...

. This large fault marks the boundary between the Indian and Burma plates. The megathrust emerges from the seafloor in Bangladesh, where it runs parallel and east of 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 ...

. This boundary continues to north of Burma where it ends at the eastern

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

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 ...

is a mostly continental

transform fault A transform fault or transform boundary, is a fault along a plate boundary where the motion is predominantly horizontal. It ends abruptly where it connects to another plate boundary, either another transform, a spreading ridge, or a subductio ...

that runs through Burma and connects the

Andaman Andaman may refer to: * Andaman Islands * Andaman Sea * ''Andaman'' (1998 film), a Kannada-language film * ''Andaman'' (2016 film), a Tamil-language film * ''Andaman'' (2021 film), a Hindi-language film See also * Andaman and Nicobar Islands ...

spreading center A mid-ocean ridge (MOR) is a seafloor mountain system formed by plate tectonics. It typically has a depth of about and rises about above the deepest portion of an ocean basin. This feature is where seafloor spreading takes place along a diver ...

to the

collision zone A collision zone occurs when tectonic plates meet at a convergent boundary both bearing continental lithosphere. As continental lithosphere is usually not subducted due to its relative low density, the result is a complex area of orogeny involvin ...

in the north. It accommodates motion between the

and Sunda Plates as they slide past each other at a rate of 18 to 49 mm/yr. The fault runs the entire length of the country for over 1,200 km and continues its trace into the Andaman Sea. The Sagaing Fault is Burma's largest and most active source of seismic threat, running through or close to major cities like Yangon,

Nay Pyi Daw Naypyidaw, officially spelled Nay Pyi Taw (; ), is the capital and third-largest city of Myanmar. The city is located at the centre of the Naypyidaw Union Territory. It is unusual among Myanmar's cities, as it is an entirely planned city out ...

and

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 ...

. Several large and damaging earthquakes have occurred on this fault in historical times.

Earthquake

The

is a major transform boundary that runs through Myanmar, and is the source of the earthquake. The earthquake epicenter is presently located just outside the city of

. It is believed that the

Meiktila Meiktila (; ) is a city in central Burma on the banks of Meiktila Lake in the Mandalay Region at the junctions of the Bagan-Taunggyi, Yangon-Mandalay and Meiktila-Myingyan highways. Because of its strategic position, Meiktila is home to Myanmar Ai ...

and

Sagaing Sagaing (, ) is the former capital of the Sagaing Region of Myanmar. It is located in the Irrawaddy River, to the south-west of Mandalay on the opposite bank of the river. Sagaing with numerous Buddhist monasteries is an important religious and ...

segment of the fault ruptured during this earthquake for a length of 400 km, generating an earthquake of magnitude 8.1–8.3 although further research is needed to confirm this. The basis for this claim is the overall lack of seismic activity in the Meiktila segment which runs from Nay Pyi Taw to Mandalay, a length of about 260 km. There is no official magnitude presented for this earthquake but most news media and research journals put the figure at 7.0–7.5 or ≥8.0 . Remote sensing and field observation revealed a maximum displacement of 5–7 meters along the trace of the 1839 rupture just outside Mandalay. This would place the magnitude at 7.4–8.0+, and generate an

earthquake rupture In seismology, an earthquake rupture is the extent of slip that occurs during an earthquake in the Earth's crust. Earthquakes occur for many reasons that include: landslides, movement of magma in a volcano, the formation of a new fault, or, mos ...

of at least 300 km. In

1946 Events January * January 6 - The 1946 North Vietnamese parliamentary election, first general election ever in Vietnam is held. * January 7 – The Allies recognize the Austrian republic with its 1937 borders, and divide the country into f ...

the 180-km-long Sagaing segment produced two major earthquakes but there are no records of its impact. Ten years later, in 1956, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck close to the city of Mandalay, re–rupturing the 1839 rupture zone for about 60 km. Meanwhile, the 260 km long Meiktila segment has not experienced any major earthquake since 1839 and is considered a

seismic gap A seismic gap is a segment of an active fault known to produce significant earthquakes that has not slipped in an unusually long time, compared with other segments along the same structure. There is a hypothesis or theory that states that over long ...

Foreshocks

The mainshock was preceded by a large

foreshock A foreshock is an earthquake that occurs before a larger seismic event (the mainshock) and is related to it in both time and space. The designation of an earthquake as ''foreshock'', ''mainshock'' or aftershock is only possible after the full sequ ...

in 1838 which also damaged the capital.

Damage and effects

Great damage was reported in

Inwa Inwa (, or ; also spelled Innwa; formerly known as Ava), located in Mandalay Region, Myanmar, is an ancient imperial capital of successive Burmese kingdoms from the 14th to 19th centuries. Throughout history, it was sacked and rebuilt numerou ...

, so severe that the formal capital was moved to nearby Amarapura. In

Mingun Mingun ( ) is a town in Sagaing Township of Sagaing Region, north-west Myanmar (Burma), located 11 km up the Ayeyarwady River on the west bank from Mandalay. Its main attraction is the ruined Mingun Pahtodawgyi. Mingun Pahtodawgyi The Ming ...

, a

stupa A stupa ( sa, स्तूप, lit=heap, ) is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as ''śarīra'' – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation. In Buddhism, circumamb ...

sustained serious damage as a result of shaking. British officials in Myanmar recorded catastrophic damage and liquefaction in Mandalay and the surrounding area. Many pagodas collapsed during the event. Chasms and fissures more than 10 feet wide were seen in Amarapura and nearly every brick building was reduced to rubble. Some villages were swallowed up as a result of liquefaction. At least 400 people were killed. The shock also reversed the flow of the

Irrawaddy River The Irrawaddy River ( Ayeyarwady River; , , from Indic ''revatī'', meaning "abounding in riches") is a river that flows from north to south through Myanmar (Burma). It is the country's largest river and most important commercial waterway. Origi ...

, where the currents became violent and overflowed its banks. It was felt for thousands of miles away from the epicenter.

Gallery

Image:Mingun - Mingun Paya, Myanmar (169495939).jpg, ''Large cracks in the incomplete

Mingun Pahtodawgyi The Mingun Pahtodawgyi ( my-Mymr, မင်းကွန်းပုထိုးတော်ကြီး, ) is an incomplete monument stupa in Mingun, approximately northwest of Mandalay in Sagaing Region in central Myanmar (formerly Burma). Th ...

caused by the earthquake.'' Image:Watch tower, Innwa Palace.jpg, ''Nan Myint Tower slightly tilted due to ground effects from the tremor.'' Image:Mingun Bell 1873.jpg, ''The

Mingun Bell The Mingun Bell ( my-Mymr, မင်းကွန်းခေါင်းလောင်းတော်ကြီး ) is a bell located in Mingun, Sagaing Region, Myanmar. It is located approximately north of Mandalay on the western bank of the ...

resting on the ground after losing its supports to the quake, pictured in 1873.'' Image:Mingun Bell-Plaque.JPG, ''A plague that stands beside the Mingun Bell.'' Image:Shinbyumei Paya d38.jpg, ''The

Hsinbyume Pagoda The Hsinbyume Pagoda ( my, ဆင်ဖြူမယ်စေတီ ; also known as Myatheindan Pagoda ( )) is a large pagoda on the northern side of Mingun in Sagaing Region in Myanmar, on the western bank of the Irrawaddy River. It is approxima ...

in 2014. Extensive restoration was done by

Mindon Min Mindon Min ( my, မင်းတုန်းမင်း, ; 1808 – 1878), born Maung Lwin, was the penultimate King of Burma (Myanmar) from 1853 to 1878. He was one of the most popular and revered kings of Burma. Under his half brother King P ...

in 1874 after the earthquake.'' Image:Inwa (Ava), Mandalay 20.jpg, ''The

Maha Aungmye Bonzan Monastery Maha Aungmye Bonzan Monastery ( my, မဟာအောင်မြေဘုံစံကျောင်း), commonly known as the Me Nu Brick Monastery ( my, မယ်နုအုတ်ကျောင်း), is a historic Buddhist monastery in In ...

after repair works.'' Image:Ruin Ava(Innwa) Myanmar(Burma).jpg, ''Preserved ruins from the ancient capital.'' Image:Stupa ruins in Inwa 05.jpg, ''Overgrown ruins of a stupa.''

References

{{Earthquakes in Myanmar, state=collapsed Earthquakes in Myanmar 1839 in Asia History of Myanmar Earthquakes in Asia 19th century in Burma British rule in Burma 1839 earthquakes 1839 natural disasters 1839 disasters in Asia Strike-slip earthquakes