Devastating Myanmar Earthquake Hints at What’s in Store for California

On March 28, a devastating magnitude 7.7 earthquake rocked Myanmar, splitting the Sagaing Fault at speeds of over 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) per second . You know which other fault resembles the Sagaing one? The San Andreas Fault in California, where seismologists have been expecting “the big one” for years.

In a study published on August 11 in the journal PNAS, a team of researchers used satellite images of the Sagaing Fault’s movement to enhance computer models that predict how similar faults might move in the future. Their research suggests that strike-slip faults, like the Sagaing and the San Andreas, could produce earthquakes unlike—and perhaps much bigger than—past known seismic events.

Satellites uncover massive fault movement

“We use remote sensing observations to document sur