Thailand Prepares For Earthquakes

[robint]

that will help tourism (but do they care?)

given the poor quality of cement and the rubbish way they mix it ina trough in hot temperatures the resulting concrete is about %10 of the strength of european version. have you noticed how easy it is the hammer down an old column with a malet

http://www.ajarnforum.net/vb/practicalities-of-living-in-thailand/47077-when-was-the-last-major-earthquake-in-bangkok.html

bkk is on a great pan of deep mud. any excitement sends the whole place quivering like a jelly

it depends on how the trmors travel as to how fault line activity some 200k away in mid burma affects thing

given the very low risk, its pretty crass to publicise such scare mongering but its a way of focussing attention away from red shirts i guess

[Acharn]

The government cant even get the flood problem under control, despite admitting it happens every year, pretty much like their English plan, they haven't got the basics right before progressing to other less important things like idioms and non-existent earthquakes.

A lot of study with little action, good for the politicians, bad for the people.

As for the flood problem, I think it depends on which flood problem you're talking about. I can tell you that the government pretty well solved the flood problem in Bangkok, If you'll remember, we had our annual floods up to about ten, twelve years ago. Now you get the occasional "flash flood" from excessive run-off but it's cleared up in hours, not weeks.

In other parts of the country, not so much.

The English problem comes from the fact that Thais mostly don't have any real reason to use English, so they don't bother learning it. I know, the Ministry of Education requires it, but everybody knows what fools they are and pays no attention to them. When the U.S. Air Force sent me to learn Mandarin Chinese I was told that if I did not pass the course (and the standard was high) I would be sent as a flight line guard to Thule, Greenland. Aside from the cold, Thule at that time had only three women -- Army nurses, which meant they were also officers. Now THAT was incentive! Unless you can find something like that you'll never motivate most Thai students to learn English. They actually see using English as showing disloyalty to their culture and country.

Oh, yeah, back to the original topic -- I've never heard of an earthquake that caused damage in Thailand, but as the story pointed out they can be so devastating that's it's prudent to prepare before one actually happens. Besides, you've got a lot of kids graduating from college every year, some of them from well-connected families, and you need jobs to put them into.

[stevehaigh]

An official said the 3.7 Richterscale quake on June 13 had caused a 3.4metre dent in the Srinakharin Dam, though the main structure was still intact and could withstand a 7.0 Richterscale tremor.

That sounds reassuring.... if a 3.7 caused a 3.4m "dent", I can only wonder what a, say 6.7 will to, seeing as it is that it's 1000x stronger...

Run, people, run!

glad i don't live downstream of that!

[peacefulwarrior]

Now we talk about quakes... In Thailand... and 2,000 years ago, they know exactly how strong they where, mmh, suuure.

And it is of course no distraction, since the Democrats face dissolution.... or some real issues... noooo, keep going media serfs.

[happygirl]

Years ago, Thailand were warned by geologists from China, Germany, and Australia, that there was a fault line running where they wanted to build the dam in Kanchanaburi, and were advised against the construction. The Thai's as usual knew better!!!

[buddyholly1]

Of course Thailand is problem free at the moment, so it makes a lot of sense to prepare for a minor tremor 2000 years from now.

I wonder how good the seismometers were 2000 years ago, when a 6.5 was recorded on the yet-to-be-invented Richter scale.

[Colabamumbai]

<BR>ya, thats why you don't build all of your structures out of concrete. <BR><BR>they are putting up a couple new 10 story dorms and a new hospital here in my town that are all formed concrete. a 5+ shake would take those down with everybody in it. lets hope this is just a stupid scare because all of Thailand is built with concrete.<BR><BR>anyone ever heard of an earthquake in Thailand? i was under the impression its never happened. fault lines don't just pop up.<BR><BR>EDIT: just finished reading that. there was a big quake 2000 years ago. lol.<BR>

Haven't heard of fault lines in Thaialnd until now. Interesting though. My neck of the woods has been effected by after shock tremors coming from quakes that have happened in mainland China and the last one I know of had an epicenter approximately 1,500kms north of Chiang Rai. Our house is concrete/cement, hard wood and teak wood. The house is four years old and last year that shake gave us our first cracks in the concrete downstairs walls, some were quite long but not wide, only hairline. My wife and I pay particular notice of them more so now, if they decide to grow.

edit: &lt;deleted&gt; is going on with the weird code showing up in the forum posts?

Yes I find that I am getting the <BR> and a variety of letters showing up in my posts and replies, at first I thought it was just one poster doing it but that code is showing up everywhere....

[bobbysan124]

Always amazed by the folks who think earthquakes don't happen where they are. The earth is in constant flux and the longer it's been since the last quake, the closer you are to the next.

[1weatherman]

So these earthquakes from 1,000/2,000/7,000 years ago seem to be the largest in Thailand history. Of course the Richter scale wasn't developed until 1935 so where they pulled out the numbers for these quakes is hard to say. It is Thailand so anything is possible. And how does concrete "dent". Maybe different kind of concrete in Thailand. But on a more serious note, it is good they are forward thinking and trying to prepare for those areas on fault lines. And thaiclan, when I was reading your post a spider ran across my desk top. Weird. Easier to get rid of than yours. (And I've also noticed the strange symbols/numbers in the posts.)

[longtom]

I suggest the posters ridiculing the Richter Scale measures of past earthquakes make a Google search for 'estimating historical earthquakes'.

No reason for smug comments, it's done everywhere.

[JetsetBkk]

Always amazed by the folks who think earthquakes don't happen where they are. The earth is in constant flux and the longer it's been since the last quake, the closer you are to the next.

Yes, there was a 6.9 yesterday:

6.9 Mw - SOLOMON ISLANDS

Preliminary Earthquake Report Magnitude 6.9 Mw Date-Time

• 26 Jun 2010 05:30:20 UTC
• 26 Jun 2010 16:30:20 near epicenter
• 26 Jun 2010 12:30:20 standard time in your timezone

Location 10.607S 161.428E Depth 35 km Distances

• 58 km (36 miles) WSW (252 degrees) of Kira Kira, Solomon Islands

I think those poor b*ggers get them quite regularly.

[Thighlander]

I've felt some temblors in Hang Dong that that sure did seem a lot like the ones in Tahoe and Berkeley, which are both major earthquake territory. Nothing quite like riding waves with a queen size mattress at 4 o'clock in the morning.

[astral]

I remember sitting in my living room in Bangkok around 1989, watching TV at 8:30 pm.

I realise the lamp was swaying.

Next morning I read in the news paper of an earthquake in China at precisely that time.....

Bangkok is very vunerable to quakes anywhere in the region as it is built on a lake of mud.

Much like Mexico City. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_Mexico_City_earthquake

If you watch as new building goes up they have to drive piles down 30m to the sand bed below

for stability.

Anyone who was in Bangkok when the earthquake that triggered the Tsunami occurred, will

remember how the city shook.

Only 100km south in Chonburi there was no perceivable effect...........

[shadiadi]

I just had an Architect make plans for some houses up North CR CM area, I was told it will cost more bcoz they have to be earthquake proof!

Seeing the resulting plans I am shocked. Maybe I should use play dough or rubber instead:)

[rakman]

ya, thats why you don't build all of your structures out of concrete.

they are putting up a couple new 10 story dorms and a new hospital here in my town that are all formed concrete. a 5+ shake would take those down with everybody in it. lets hope this is just a stupid scare because all of Thailand is built with concrete.

anyone ever heard of an earthquake in Thailand? i was under the impression its never happened. fault lines don't just pop up.

EDIT: just finished reading that. there was a big quake 2000 years ago. lol.

It's a rock faced earthen dam. Exact construction details are difficult to find.

It's cheaper building an earthen dam, but I'd prefer a proper steel reinforced concrete structure. The recent earthquake in Chile showed the importance of proper steel rebar placement to avoid collapse of columns and walls.

[rakman]

I remember sitting in my living room in Bangkok around 1989, watching TV at 8:30 pm.

I realise the lamp was swaying.

Next morning I read in the news paper of an earthquake in China at precisely that time.....

Bangkok is very vunerable to quakes anywhere in the region as it is built on a lake of mud.

Much like Mexico City. http://en.wikipedia....City_earthquake

If you watch as new building goes up they have to drive piles down 30m to the sand bed below

for stability.

Anyone who was in Bangkok when the earthquake that triggered the Tsunami occurred, will

remember how the city shook.

Only 100km south in Chonburi there was no perceivable effect...........

Earthquakes near area with hard rock suffer little to no damage in moderate earthquakes (assuming proper building). In an area like BKK, Mexico City, or San Francisco Mission District, the effect of even a small quake is magnified many times since the seismic waves slow down and increase in amplitude in soft soils. Similar effect seen in the tsunami as the wave approaches the shore.

In muddy or sandy soils there is also the process of liquefaction. Water will literally blast out of the ground and flood an area as it shakes like a bowl of gelatin.

Couple the added amplitude, poor steel placement in reinforced concrete, insufficient bases to buildings, poor seismic planning or corrupt construction and BKK could look like Kobe, Japan or worse.

Of course, earthquake prediction is a long way off, but the using historical earthquake information can help narrowing down the century where a quake might occur. But it's a statistical estimate, not a definite one.

Southern California has been predicting every year for the "Big One" to happen in the next 30 years for the last 50 years. The cycle seems to occur every 100-150 years, Still hasn't happened, but some pretty strong quakes around Southern California could be fore-shocks of bigger things to come.

[jackr]

We don't feel everything the earth does, but take a look at the buildings. what's with all the cracks?

Mostly just cracking of the render I'd say.

I can remember three earthquakes in my 16 years in Chiangmai. One, at 4.1, shook the park I was in at the time (opposite Phuping Police Station), and sent my Bangkaew dog ballistic (luckily he was on a lead, or I'd never have seen him again). Another, at 5.1, caused some damage to buildings out at Mae Jo. And of course, if you want to look back into history, there was the one which destroyed Chedi Luang in 1545 or thereabouts.

And of course the Aceh earthquake of 2004 that also shook CM.

We won't get a huge one in Muang Thai on the stylie of Kobe/San Fran as the nature of the faults here are more fluid and less prone to sticking as much. Still, anything up from 5 won't be good for the typical upcountry village here.

[robertson468]

We had a couple of quite noticeable tremors a couple of years ago here in Chiang mai, around Christmas time as i recall, enough to rattle the car port, dislodge a few of the tiles in the Bath room and dislodge the hand basin away from the wall. quite worrying really as i could not sleep properly that night thinking there might be a bigger one to come.

Just glad i did not have a apartment in a condo.

I had some quite noticeable tremors last month, but I have cut down on the old vino and feel much better.

[TheBarbarian]

7000 years ago? 2000 years ago? How did they measure it? According the Suthep Scale or through the Newin scale? Depending on how much kickback is required.

[mahtin]

Regional activity, last 15 days.

http://www.tmd.go.th/en/earthquake_report.php