FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
The death toll from the earthquake that struck Myanmar, which also had aftershocks in Thailand, may have been between 50,000 and 100,000.
The dire prediction was made by the President of the National Disasters and Emergencies Committee in Greece, Efthymis Lekkas.
"We were dealing with a major earthquake. An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7, at a shallow focal depth. These are the two main factors that have contributed to us having such major disasters in such a large area ," said Lekkas.
At the same time, he emphasized that, " the sensitivity of the earthquake is very high, given that we are also dealing with the directionality of seismic waves."
"That is, we have a rift that has an approximate North-South direction and the seismic waves - because this rift is a horizontal slide - are directed either towards China, which is, towards Thailand."
Regarding the seismic profile of the area, Lekkas said that, "there are a multitude of tectonic plates in the region, but in the specific area where the earthquake occurred, we are dealing with two plates, the Eurasian one, which is homologous to our plate, that of Europe and Asia, which moves horizontally in the north-south direction in the Indian direction."
" So we have two big plates, massive formations moving along the fault and we have this huge seismic activity. We are essentially on the boundary of two big tectonic plates characterized by high seismicity. And the region is of course also characterized by very high seismicity, not only in this specific area, but also in others to the north and south."
"According to our calculations, the death toll could be between 50,000 and 100,000. There is a 30% chance that we will have 50,000 to 100,000. Taking into account the geological-geodynamic criteria, the structured buildings and the conditions prevailing in the area, but also according to the data collected by American colleagues and some of the footage that we have seen, really confirm this assessment," said Lekkas.
Lekkas also mentioned that "a very important element is that we have 1400 kilometers of damage in Bangkok. This damage is located in very tall buildings, that is, 20, 40, 60-story buildings. This situation is completely justified, given that when seismic waves travel this long distance, the seismic period periods are long, which are also long coordination of tall buildings, so we also have localized damage in very tall buildings.
As for whether there will be abundant postseismic activity, Lekkas explained that, "there would have to be a magnitude 7.2 earthquake to say that we are entering a relaxation phase, but I estimate that because it is a horizontal sliding fault that moves south and north, these large earthquakes will continue both towards China, but also towards Thailand and Indonesia, towards Banda."
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