7.0 Earthquake in Myanmar Felt in Bangkok

[JamesWest]

Thai PBS, Richard Barrow and Steve Herman via twitter reporting a 7.0 quake in Myanmar felt in Bangkok, minutes ago.

Delays on the Skytrain being reported

[Bristolian]

^^ Just stepped off the sky train at Silom and no delays on that line. All trains still active here. Maybe there are problems on other lines in the city.

[Bristolian]

Bangkok Post report

"People in several buildings in Bangkok reported being shaken by the 6.8 magnitude earthquake that struck central Myanmar early in the evening on Wednesday."

Any office or building of 6-8 floors vibrates in resonance with the frequency of earthquakes ( not sure why I know this- guess it's simply one of those useless facts you collect over time)

On the ground the same earthquake can be totally unrecognised

[buksida]

Powerful Earthquake Hits Myanmar Near Ancient Capital
A powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake rattled central Myanmar on Wednesday afternoon, more than a day after another tremor struck the Southeast Asian nation, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake hit around 4:34 p.m. local time (6:04 a.m. ET) about 15 miles west of Chauk, near the ancient capital of Bagan, and shook buildings in Myanmar's largest city of Yangon, witnesses told Reuters. There were no immediate reports of injuries, deaths or major damage.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/power ... al-n636966

[Nereus]

Any office or building of 6-8 floors vibrates in resonance with the frequency of earthquakes ( not sure why I know this- guess it's simply one of those useless facts you collect over time)

You sure about that young fellow? Maybe you have spent too much time in Japan.

To make a tall building really sway, the seismic waves must drag its base back and forth at a frequency that matches that of the building’s natural oscillation–its resonant frequency. That is to say, if you “plucked” a building and let it wobble it would do so at a frequency that is determined by its material properties, geometry, and weight, among other things. If you then continue to shake it at that same frequency, you’ll accentuate the motion, just like the swing set, causing “resonance.”

Taller buildings have lower natural resonant frequencies than short buildings, meaning that if a broad spectrum of seismic wave frequencies is released, buildings with different resonant frequencies will sway differently. Small 2-story houses have extremely high resonant frequencies, and are thus more susceptible to the very sharp seismic waves experienced most strongly near the epicenter of a quake. Sky-scrapers may start swaying at huge distances from a quake, where high-frequency waves have died off and all that are left are the low-frequency seismic waves people can barely feel (we have even higher resonant frequencies than houses, if you want to think of it that way: it’s sort of why a bus braking hard makes us fall over whereas a train stopping for hundreds of yards leaves us upright).

Stolen from here: http://blogs.agu.org/tremblingearth/201 ... equencies/

[Bristolian]

Any office or building of 6-8 floors vibrates in resonance with the frequency of earthquakes ( not sure why I know this- guess it's simply one of those useless facts you collect over time)

You sure about that young fellow? Maybe you have spent too much time in Japan.

Me, Sure? No not really but I do know that my 6 floor office in Tokyo is a pretty scary place when it starts shaking. Not sure where I picked up the 6-8 floor thing.
Thinking about it, my office in Tokyo is a pretty scary place even when it's not shaking

[Nereus]

Italy, Myanmar quakes show seismic volatility

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/world/1 ... volatility

The powerful earthquakes that rocked Italy and Myanmar only hours apart on Wednesday were in no way related, but show just how seismically volatile our planet is.

Earth is rocked each year by more than 100,000 earthquakes with a magnitude-3 intensity or greater, and hundreds of smaller quakes move the ground beneath our feet every day -- many too small for humans to even feel.

The shaking is caused when the planet's massive tectonic plates suddenly slip along a fault line. The plates are always slowly moving, but sometimes their edges become stuck due to friction. That stress puts pressure on the plates that is then released in waves that travel through the earth's crust and up to the ground beneath our feet -- an earthquake. Humans typically don't feel the shaking until it reaches a magnitude-3 or greater.
It's not unusual for powerful quakes of a magnitude-6 or greater to occur in two vastly separate places in the world on the same day, said US Geological Survey geophysicist John Bellinni. With about 100 quakes at that strength or higher each year worldwide, the number of these powerful temblors averages out to about two per week.

Wednesday's quakes occurred in two completely different seismic zones, Mr Bellinni said, and at locations more than 8,000 kilometres apart. Italy's quake struck at a magnitude-6.2, killing scores of people. The one in Myanmar measured even higher at 6.8, but so far only three people are reported to have been killed.

The disparity is a result of the fact that deeper quakes tend to do less damage. That's because the strength of shaking from an earthquake diminishes the farther you get from its source, meaning the strength of shaking at the surface from a 483km-deep quake is considerably less than a 19.3km-deep one, the USGS said.

Italy's quake occurred at a depth of about 9.7km below the surface, while Myanmar's took place some 80.5km underground, said Susan Hough, a USGS seismologist. Italy is a seismically active region, and that quake occurred along a boundary where the tectonic plate of Africa is crashing into the European plate, Mr Bellini said.

"Italy has a history of such tragic, moderately large events," said John Vidale, director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network at the University of Washington. "It is not the most active area in the world, but this is no surprise," he said.

As for whether one quake can impact another, Ms Hough said it is possible for some massive earthquakes to send out shockwaves that influence fault lines in other areas. A magnitude-7.3 earthquake in California, for instance, triggered a separate quake some 402.3km away in Nevada in 1992. However, Italy's quake Wednesday was far too small to have that effect, Mr Hough said.

A lot is known about earthquakes, but Ms  said it's possible there are still interactions between two shaking events that we still don't fully understand.