On 8/22/2025 at 2:38 AM, Xonax said:

The earthquake near Myanmar yesterday was just MV 4.6 according to USGS

 

Similar differences existed in reporting of the March 28th Quake (Mandalay).

Thailand’s meteorological authority reported it as an MV 8.2 quake, whereas its was reported as MB 7.7 by the USGS.

Fallout from this latest earthquake is the GF has nixed us buying a 38th floor condo (In Pattaya, which has had none of this) and now anything over floor 10 is a no-no 😳
 

I do wonder if others feel the same way & we might find ourselves having to pay a premium for a lower floor 😳

16 minutes ago, SamSpade said:

Fallout from this latest earthquake is the GF has nixed us buying a 38th floor condo (In Pattaya, which has had none of this) and now anything over floor 10 is a no-no 😳
 

I do wonder if others feel the same way & we might find ourselves having to pay a premium for a lower floor 😳

I've never understood paying a premium for a higher floor.  Lower floors are usually quieter because you have buildings blocking more of the noise.  When you are up higher you hear everything everywhere.  Also requires more time spent in the elevator.  As far as enjoying the view.  It's like a painting on the wall.  No matter how good it is, you don't even notice it after awhile.

On 8/22/2025 at 2:53 AM, jiggi said:

But did any earthquake warnings go out? Whatever happened to those? 
I know my phone didn’t receive any message. 

 

At such minor levels, there is no real need for a warning. Issuing alerts for events that people are unlikely to even notice serves little practical purpose.

 

Earthquakes of this magnitude occur frequently. If every tremor within a certain radius of Thailand triggered a warning, the system would sound continuously and soon be ignored entirely.

 

The true value of a warning system lies in tsunami risk management. A major offshore quake along the Sunda megathrust near Aceh, capable of triggering a life-threatening tsunami, could provide hours of notice, time that can genuinely save lives.

 

It’s also important to note that, given the speed at which seismic waves travel, any significant quake capable of impacting Thailand - such as along the Sunda Fault in Myanmar - is so close that there is effectively no time to react.

 

For reference, the March 28 Mandalay quake produced the following wave arrivals to Bangkok:

 

- P wave (Compressional body wave, fastest)  Speed ~8.1 km/s >>126–171 seconds

- S wave (Shear body wave, moves only through solids)  Speed ~4.5 km/s >> 228 seconds

- Love wave  (Horizontally polarised surface wave, side-to-side motion) Speed ~3.5–4.0 km/s >> ~256–293 seconds

- Rayleigh wave  (Surface wave with rolling elliptical motion, vertical & horizontal) Speed ~3.0 km/s >> ~342 seconds

 

 

Given these extremely short “warnings,” the information is largely for situational awareness rather than actionable evacuation. Remaining inside structurally sound buildings is typically the safest course, as such constructions are proven to withstand localised quakes of roughly MV 6.0 equivalence ( which was the localised equivalent in BKK from the March 28 quake).

 

A higher-energy quake would need to exceed MV 7.7 along the Andaman or Sunda Fault lines to pose a serious risk to Bangkok.

 

The largest recorded quake that epicentre in Thailand was in Chiang Rai with recorded MV 6.1 on May 5, 2014 along the Phayao Fault system which is a minor-to-moderate regional fault, its highly unlikely that anything greater than this would occur).

 

In such cases, there would still be insufficient time to evacuate high-rise buildings safely; the primary hazards would be falling glass and cladding rather than structural failure.

 

 

 

In short (TLDR) - The warning system is not really useful for earth quakes due to the speed at which they 'arrive' - the only use for quakes is for 'on-time information' so people don't panic (if thats possible). In the event of a major quake, its best to remain in the buildings due to risk of falling debris & such advice really 'should' be circulated by authorities.

 

Thailands warning system would (if working) come into its own when there is a high risk of Tsunami.