Earthquakes are cruel events that change the face of the planet. In most cases, these changes occur under the surface and only gradually become visible over thousands of years. Occasionally, however, the effect of the earthquake is not only felt – they are visible. Even less frequent is to actually capture one of those moments in the camera, but according to seismologists at the University of Japan, the footage emphasizes the first known video of the Strike-Slip failure. Their analysis, published Seismic recordled to new conclusions based on real -time visual evidence of tectonic movements.
Event 7.7 m. Took place on March 28th. Along the Sagaing failure when the epicenter near Mandalay Mandalay Mianmar. Although the initial rupture process took just 80 seconds, it and many signs were eventually responsible for 5,456 approved death and more than 11,000 injuries. Later, the evaluations showed that the quake was the second deadly in modern history, as well as the most powerful, which reached Myanmar in a century. Based on the document of a separate group published in the same magazine, the southern part of the rupture took place in a stunning 3.7 mile per second – fast enough to hold Supershear Velocity.
Among the disaster, an outdoor CCTV camera, located about 74.5 miles south of the epicenter, captured the visceral illustration of its power. In just a few moments, what looks like one piece of earth at first, suddenly divides and shifts horizontally in the opposite directions. By accident, the camera captured a direct impact slip failure, which was previously analyzed by remote seismic instruments. For researchers at Kyoto University, the clip was not just a jaw reduction scene-it was possible to investigate strike slip failure using visual data.
“We did not expect this video to provide such a rich diversity of observations,” said the relevant authors and geologist Jesse Kears. “Such cinematic data are very important in order to improve our understanding of the sources of earthquake sources.”
Kears and colleagues used a technique called Pixel Crossing Correlation to analyze the failure movement with each frame. Their conclusions showed that the failure of the horizontally decreased by 8.2 feet only in 1.3 seconds and the maximum speed was about 10.5 feet per second. Although the movement corresponded to the existing knowledge of the experts about slipping ruptures, short duration and speed were new changes.
“The short duration of motion confirms the impulse-like rupture, which is characterized by a concentrated slide explosion, which emanates along the failure, much like a pulsation driving a mat as it dashed at one end,” Kears explained.
Additional exams also proved that the slip path was slightly curved, confirming previous observations recorded elsewhere in the world. This means that it subtly bent the strike, not completely linear, may be the rule, not the exception.
“In general, these observations create a new benchmark to understand dynamic rupture processes,” the study authors wrote, adding that the video shows the real-time curved sliding paths, helping to deepen our understanding of physical mechanisms that control rapidly slipping during major earthquakes. “
Such discoveries can also help with seismologists, geologists and city planners to create more resistant architecture to ensure that, when large earthquakes are inevitably occurring, their damage is reduced as much as possible.