Mae Chan Fault is an active 118 km long west-southwest–east-northeast trending left lateral

strike-slip fault In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

Northern Thailand Northern Thailand, or more specifically Lanna, is geographically characterised by several mountain ranges, which continue from the Shan Hills in bordering Myanmar to Laos, and the river valleys which cut through them. Though like most of Thailand ...

that extends into western

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...

. It was responsible for a 6.3 magnitude quake in Laos on May 16, 2007, that caused property damage as far as Chiang Rai in Thailand. A part of it stretches from Mae Chan to Mae Ai for 40 km along the highway, then goes through

Fang A fang is a long, pointed tooth. In mammals, a fang is a modified maxillary tooth, used for biting and tearing flesh. In snakes, it is a specialized tooth that is associated with a venom gland (see snake venom). Spiders also have external fang ...

, Chiang Dao, Mae Rim and San Kamphaeng districts of

Chiang Mai Chiang Mai (, from th, เชียงใหม่ , nod, , เจียงใหม่ ), sometimes written as Chiengmai or Chiangmai, is the largest city in northern Thailand, the capital of Chiang Mai province and the second largest city in ...

, to Mae Tha district of Lamphun.

Tectonic setting

It lies within the complex zone of collision between the

Indian Plate The Indian Plate (or India Plate) is a minor tectonic plate straddling the equator in the Eastern Hemisphere. Originally a part of the ancient continent of Gondwana, the Indian Plate broke away from the other fragments of Gondwana , began mov ...

and the

Eurasian Plate The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate that includes most of the continent of Eurasia (a landmass consisting of the traditional continents of Europe and Asia), with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent and ...

. The orientation of this plate boundary is highly oblique to the direction of movement of the two plates. This has resulted in an area of dominantly strike-slip tectonics with the north–south trending right lateral

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 ...

and the northwest–southeast trending right lateral Red River Fault being the largest structures. The block between these two major fault zones is characterised by west–east extension combined with a set of sub-parallel west-southwest–east-northeast trending left lateral strike-slip faults, giving an overall transtensional setting. This set includes the Jinghong Fault stretching from Kengtung,

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 ...

Xishuangbanna Xishuangbanna, Sibsongbanna or Sipsong Panna ( Tham: , New Tai Lü script: ; ; th, สิบสองปันนา; lo, ສິບສອງພັນນາ; shn, သိပ်းသွင်ပၼ်းၼႃး; my, စစ်ဆောင်� ...

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

, the Nan Ma Fault, Muang Houn Fault, and Dien Bien Phu Fault.

Seismic hazard

It has become "more active" since the

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Suma ...

. The

2011 Myanmar earthquake {{Disambiguation * March 2011 Myanmar earthquake The 2011 Tarlay earthquake occurred on 24 March in Shan State, Myanmar. The earthquake measured 6.8 and had an epicenter northwest of the border between Myanmar, Thailand and Laos. It occurred ...

hit some north of this fault, most likely on the roughly parallel Nan Ma Fault, killing well over 100 people. A Japanese study found that it is capable of producing a 7.0 magnitude quake, and is considered as one of two of the most "worrying" faults in Thailand.

References

{{Indochina plates Seismic faults of Southeast Asia Geology of Thailand