After Burma, Earthquakes Rocked Thailand Too

[webfact]

After Burma, quakes rocked Thailand too

By The Nation

Earthquakes that were felt in the North and Bangkok last Thursday actually occurred with epicentres in Thailand, but were mistaken, by both the public and initially by local seismologists, as taking place in Burma, or as aftershocks, a senior meteorological official said yesterday.

The quakes in Burma took place roughly one hour earlier, and the tremors felt widely in Thailand had epicentres within Thailand, said deputy Meteo-rology Department spokesman Adisorn Fungkhajorn.

The Thailand-based quakes occurred on the following fault lines, at the following locations and times, with various magnitudes on the Richter scale: at 9.17pm, a quake of magnitude 4 occurred on the Pua fault lines in Nan's Wieng Sa district; at 10.09pm a 3-magnitude quake occurred on the Mae Chan fault in Chiang Rai's Chiang Saen; and at 10.15pm a further quake of magnitude 3.4 occurred on the Mae Chan fault lines in Mae Sai.

"They were triggered by the earthquakes in Burma, and a study of the subsequent quakes or aftershocks is underway, and whether there will be more quakes coming in Thailand. An advisory will be issued to the public soon," said Adisorn, who is the chief meteorological official in the North.

He said there were two previous earthquakes in Thailand in recent weeks. On February 23 a quake of magnitude 2.0 occurred on the Mae Chan fault lines in Chiang Rai's Phan district, and on March 1, there was a 3.2 magnitude quake on the same Mae Chan fault lines, but in Chiang Mai's Chaiya Prakan district.

The government has called a meeting on Thursday of key agencies involved in meteorological and other scientific affairs, along with agencies having civil-defence duties and responsibility for safety and rescue operations, to work out long-standing precautions and measures to cope with possible future earthquakes.

PM's Office Minister Satit Wongnongtaey, who will chair the meeting as the director of an ad-hoc flood-relief centre, said a new office to specifically handle earthquake affairs was not needed. He repeated assurances from relevant agencies that no dams in Thailand were affected by last Thursday's quakes.

On the agenda for Thursday's meeting will be the enforcement of existing quake-safety regulations, quick compensation payments to quake victims, a nationwide survey of safety features and the ability of all high-rise buildings to cope with an earthquake, quick and effective early warnings, and the need, in case of a big quake, to survey possible damage sustained by high-rise buildings in Bangkok or by major dams, especially hydropower dams in the North and the West, which are located near geophysical fault lines.

Asian Institute of Technology seismologist Penneung Wanichchai said he had not yet checked information in yesterday's report. However, earthquakes in the northern region, especially on the Mae Chan and Pua fault lines, occurred often because the faults were still active.

-- The Nation 2011-03-29

[londonthai]

ups, took seismologists some 5 days to realise that they have missed something.

now, how are they are going to predict anything looming on us?

[Bakseedaa]

ups, took seismologists some 5 days to realise that they have missed something.

now, how are they are going to predict anything looming on us?

Thats easy..... they will read it on Thai Visa first... is it not the Thai way..?

[daiwill60]

for some reason it seems, only animals can reliably predict quakes, so it is a bit of a waste of money to try and predict them. Don,t get me wrong here, there are obviusly ways and means of telling if fault lines are at risk of tectonic movement and when a slippage may be due, but reliably????????The magnitude of the quakes measured in Thailand are no more than the numerous small quakes that regularly occcur in the UK, and will inevtably happen where there are minor fault lines. All seems to me like a bit of panic amongst a largely lowly educated nation.If schools and colleges taught properly in Thailand and properly educated its people, then perhaps one day they might start getting more things right.

[londonthai]

no more than the numerous small quakes that regularly occcur in the UK

you don't see roads cracked like this and buildings damaged in the uk, do you? 6 richter are pretty strong quakes

[toybits]

Yeah, yeah, but an earthquake has to be or a magnetude greater that 2.5. And if it was a mag. 3.5 people not used to earthquakes might miss feeling that as well. So there has been seismic activity here in Northern Thailand. What else is new?

Source: http://www.geo.mtu.e.../magnitude.html

Earthquake Magnitude Scale

MagnitudeEarthquake EffectsEstimated Number Each Year

2.5 or less Usually not felt, but can be recorded by seismograph. 900,000

2.5 to 5.4 Often felt, but only causes minor damage. 30,000

5.5 to 6.0 Slight damage to buildings and other structures. 500

6.1 to 6.9 May cause a lot of damage in very populated areas. 100

7.0 to 7.9 Major earthquake. Serious damage. 20

8.0 or greater Great earthquake. One every 5 to 10 years

Edited March 29, 2011 by toybits

[Igor]

for some reason it seems, only animals can reliably predict quakes,

Poop! Animals don't predict anything of the sort. They observe. They observe the subsonics and very minor tremors at the beginning of a seismic event. And shame on you for calling seismologists animals. Because they, too, can "predict" earthquakes - by your definition. The problem you see, is that a few seconds or maybe a minute of advance warning isn't much help to anybody. Not even the animals - except maybe those who can fly.

BTW - I've lived in several earthquake-prone areas from California to Indonesia, Greece to Afghanistan and others. I learned long ago to go to the USGS website and sign up for their earthquake notification system. No, not a prediction site but when there is a quake, it send me an email telling me where it was and how strong it was. You might want to set your limits a bit higher than mine. I have it set to only tell me about temblors that are 4.0 or higher. I'm getting 8 or 10 a day about Japan! If I lived on the coast, I'd also go to the tsunami warning center and sign up for their service. They can sometimes predict hours in advance.

[Igor]

Yeah, yeah, but an earthquake has to be or a magnetude greater that 2.5.

Toybits, a nice link. People really do not understand the magnitude scale of earthquake measurement. I especially liked the comparison to a magnitude 1 quake being like popping off a half a stick of dynamite whereas a 6 is more like a few megatons! Some people still think a magnitude 6 temblor equals 6 X 1. Wrong. The scale is logarithmic. You might feel a 3 quake but a 4 is TEN times stronger. That means a 5 is 100 times stronger than a 3 while a 6 is 1000 times stronger, etc. That's why a 3 hardly makes anyone notice but a 7 (a 3 X 10,000) brings down buildings!

[ScubaBuddha]

for some reason it seems, only animals can reliably predict quakes,

Poop! Animals don't predict anything of the sort. They observe. They observe the subsonics and very minor tremors at the beginning of a seismic event. And shame on you for calling seismologists animals. Because they, too, can "predict" earthquakes - by your definition. The problem you see, is that a few seconds or maybe a minute of advance warning isn't much help to anybody. Not even the animals - except maybe those who can fly.

BTW - I've lived in several earthquake-prone areas from California to Indonesia, Greece to Afghanistan and others. I learned long ago to go to the USGS website and sign up for their earthquake notification system. No, not a prediction site but when there is a quake, it send me an email telling me where it was and how strong it was. You might want to set your limits a bit higher than mine. I have it set to only tell me about temblors that are 4.0 or higher. I'm getting 8 or 10 a day about Japan! If I lived on the coast, I'd also go to the tsunami warning center and sign up for their service. They can sometimes predict hours in advance.

When I was stuck in Tokyo for 36 hours the day after the quake, I learned Japan has an earthquake early warning system which, as long as you aren't right on top of the epicenter, gives the public a few to several seconds warning the seismic waves of a quake is approaching. It was very a strange thing each time I heard mobile phones around me all start chirping in unison, not knowing whether it was another big one or just a small aftershock.

Here is a fascinating video of the live NHK broadcast during the quake. The reporters ability to report through the quake is phenomenal. Notice how they get several seconds warning of the quake, followed by a tsunami warning issued before the quake is even over. Thailand can't even keep the batteries from going flat in a tsunami buoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU1bYspMyQw

Edited March 29, 2011 by ScubaBuddha

[WinnieTheKhwai]

So.. Thai seismologist now find epicenters in Thailand 5 days after the fact, with nothing of the sort showing on the US websites.

Right.

Then The Nation prints it.

Right.

Next.

[Credo]

Earthquakes scare me silly.

My dog and cat also don't care much for them. They act particularly weird when there is a quake somewhere. I never feel them here, but the pets sure do.

By the way, the word epicenter is similar to hub. I hope we don't have another hub coming to Thailand.

[Digitalbanana]

From the news item it says times of quakes:

>The Thailand-based quakes occurred ...at 9.17pm...at 10.09pm .....and at 10.15pm

>Magnitude 6.8 earthquake in Burma occurred at 24-March 8:54pm.

The report also says:

>mistaken, by both the public and initially by local seismologists, as taking place in Burma, or as aftershocks, a senior meteorological official said yesterday.

The tremors I felt in central Bangkok were at around 9pm, so must have been from Burma based on timing. Suggest the senior meteorological official goes back to his data and re-checks!

[londonthai]

" at 9.17pm, a quake of magnitude 4 occurred on the Pua fault lines in Nan's Wieng Sa district; at 10.09pm a 3-magnitude quake occurred on the Mae Chan fault in Chiang Rai's Chiang Saen; and at 10.15pm a further quake of magnitude 3.4 occurred on the Mae Chan fault lines in Mae Sai."

from bangkok you wouldn't feel them, locals did.

as to usa website, not mentioning those quakes, it qualified them as aftershocks, because they were close distance to the first, similar time and were much smaller