In March 2025, a major earthquake shaken Burma. But this time, an unprecedented event occurs: a surveillance camera lives live the rupture of the sagaing flaw. This video of an incredible scientific value offers a unique window on the sliding mechanisms of an active flaw and makes it possible to validate a hypothesis long debated in the seismological community.
On March 28, 2025, Burma was shaken by a violent earthquake of magnitudemagnitude 7.7 having caused significant damage. Rare fact, even unique, the surface rupture along the sagaing flaw was captured live by a video surveillance camera.
Posted on InternetInternetthis video immediately attracted theeyeeye Researchers. “” I saw her on YouTubeYouTube one or two hours after putting it online, and it immediately was cold in the of theof the, recalls Jesse Kearse, geophysicist at the University of Kyoto, in a press release. It shows something that I think, all the earthquake specialists were looking forward to it, and it was right there, so exciting! ».
First break of filmed flaw – M7.9 earthquake in Myanmar. © MG1010, YouTube
The breakdown of a direct flaw
If the SismologuesSismologues Indeed are used to seeing the rupture on the ground after the earthquake, it is quite another thing to see it getting live. Beyond the exceptional testimony that this video represents only a few seconds represents, it also conveys valuable information that allows researchers to better understand how the break along a flaw.
Information that does not necessarily appear at first glance. It was after five or six views that a detail marked the seismologist. A precise analysis of the video will thus confirm a hypothesis which has so far been based on the observation of discreet streaks on the flaw.
Mechanics of an earthquake
An earthquake is triggered at a point, when the tension created by the displacement of tectonic plates and accumulated over time exceeds the threshold of résistancerésistance rocks. This point is named hypocentre, or a home (not to be confused with the epicenter, which is the projection on the surface of this point). It is from there that the wave trains generated by the sudden release ofenergyenergy mechanical. In terms of the hypocentre, the rocks will therefore move, the quantity of displacement corresponding to the deficit of movementmovement accumulated by rocks. This break will then spread in a direction along the flaw plan.
For powerful earthquakes like that of last March, the break often initiated several kilometers deep, can even reach the surface. The flaw becomes “visible” and its rupture generates a notable gap of the two compartments it delimits. This is what we clearly see about the video.
But, contrary to what one might think, the shift of the blocks along the flaw is not necessarily done in a linear way. Observations on the ground, made on many flaws in the world, reveal the presence of curved streaks, suggesting a complex movement along the flaw plan.
But there were uncertainties concerning the source of these streaks: are they linked solely to cosismic displacement (during the earthquake), or also to post -ismic movements?
A curved trip at the time of the rupture
This is where the video of March 28 is precious. By tracing the movements of the various objects visible on the video, pixelpixel By Pixel, the researchers were able to highlight the fact that the movement along the flaw follows a curved trajectory at the very moment of the rupture. This analysis notably made it possible to quantify more precisely the rupture along the fault. The researchers show that the fault has thus slipped 2.5 meters by a durationduration of 1.3 seconds, with a peak of vitessevitesse 3.2 m/s.
These results, published in the journal The Seismic Recordshow that this earthquake occurred in the form of an impulse, a major discovery which confirms previous hypotheses formulated from the analysis of others earthquakesearthquakes.
The observation of a curved shift could be explained by the fact that the constraints exerted on the flaw near the surface are relatively low.
Analysis of this unique video of its kind reveals that the streaks observed on flaws can therefore be used to characterize the dynamics of ancient earthquakes. So much information that makes it possible to better anticipate the seismic risk.
