The 2012 Thabeikkjin (Myanmar) M 7.0 earthquake and its surface rupture characteristics

Abstract

Based on the first-hand data obtained from the field survey in terms of geology, landforms, earthquake ruins, this paper focuses on the activity behavior of the Sagaing fault, as well as the damaged buildings and seismic surface rupture zone generated by the 2012 earthquake. The Sagaing fault striking nearly NS is an active large-scale dextral strike-slip fault, with a horizontal slip rate of 18~20 mm/a. Many strong earthquakes more than M 7 have occurred along the Sagaing fault zone historically, and so far, there are still ruins of the earthquakes, such as the 1839 Innwa, Mandalay, M 8 earthquake, the 1930 Bago M 7.3 earthquake and the 1930 Phyu M 7.3 earthquake. The 2012 Thabeikkjin M 7.0 earthquake caused serious damage to pagodas, civil and other buildings, forming an at least 45 km-long seismic surface rupture with bank collapses, landslides, seismic faults and so on. The epicenter intensity of the earthquake is estimated to be IX. Under the dextral strike slip of the fault, the ground fissures show a trend of regular left-step en echelon, and the included angle with the strike of the Sagaing fault is generally 20°~30°; The large-scale ground fissures mostly show a "S" type. The regular left-step en echelon trend of ground fissures and the faulted ground features indicate that the seismic surface fracture are obviously characterized by dextral strike slip. The horizontal dextral displacements caused by the 2012 earthquake are generally between 40~90 cm, and the maximum reaches 102 cm. The surface rupture characteristics and the results of focal mechanism solutions show that the event is caused by the dextral strike-slip of the Sagaing fault.

Keywords

• thabeikkjin
• earthquake
• sagaing fault
• seismic surface rupture
• dextral strike-slip