After Friday’s earthquake, which had its center near the million city of Mandalay in Myanmar, pictures of demolished houses and roads give an indication of the extent of the quake.
– It is a very powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7. We do not have so many of them every year, maybe one or three, but fortunately they rarely happen in a densely populated area that has happened today, says Björn Lund when he participates in SVT’s live broadcast.
At the same time, he says that the next few days are critical in terms of the risk of even larger quakes in the area.
– We have to wait unfortunately. It is the next few days that the risk is greatest, says Björn Lund.
He is similar to today’s quakes to those who hit Turkey and Syria two years ago, where over 50,000 people were killed.
– These are very similar circumstances. We have a flat limit on which this quake has happened, just like in Turkey. It is also just like there horizontal movement and it is very densely populated. It makes us all worried about how this has gone.
Although the information about death victims and injuries is early and therefore uncertain, Björn Lund believes that there is a risk that what has happened may grow in scope.
– The comparison with Turkey is probably the closest and there we saw what terrible consequences an earthquake of this size can have. We hope that things do not go so badly here, but since Mandalay is very close to the rejection that has moved, there is a great risk that it has become very big injuries.
“Myanmar – a very closed country”
It is not uncommon for earthquakes in the region and in Myanmar, several large quakes have been experienced in the past.
– You just have to go back to 2016 so it was a quake of 6.8 a little further east and in 2012 then we had an earthquake with magnitude 6.8 just north of today’s earthquake. During the 20th century you have had several earthquake on this particular crack zone, so from that perspective you are used to myanmar that it can happen.
Björn Lund points out that the question of what building standards and building standards for the country’s infrastructure look like has a major impact on the damage that today’s quake has resulted in.
– It is a bit unclear and unfortunately I do not think it is so good. It is a very closed country so I have no overview to what extent you secured against earthquakes, he says.