A 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit Thailand, the strongest and deadliest earthquake that has ever hit a country or a state. This earthquake happened on March 28, 2025. It was so bad that a lot of people lost their lives, their homes, and their family members with it.
These earthquakes happen when tectonic plates, the Earth’s crust and upper mantle, move and collide which causes earthquakes in different states and countries.
When the earthquake hit Thailand, two hotels collapsed near the epicenter in Mandalay, the country’s second most popular city, after people went back to the structures days after the earthquake. Even before the earthquake, four years of civil war had left millions of people without adequate shelter, and battered health and communication infrastructure.
Autumn, a 6th grade student, said, “I think that it’s crazy that there’s so many crazy things that are happening in the world like tsunamis and earthquakes and I hope that scientists can make it better – at least put better warnings to save a lot of people.”
Namra, another 6th grade student, said, “I think it should have never happened because it caused people to die and it caused damage to other people’s homes and imagine how long it took to build that tower and it was destroyed by the earthquake.”
CNN reports that “Beijing pledged $13.8 million in humanitarian assistance. According to OCHA, health workers on the ground are struggling to field streams of injured people. IFRC has launched an emergency appeal to provide relief in Myanmar over the next two years. Myanmar is on an active emergency belt, but many of the temblors usually happen in sparsely populated areas, not cities like those affected Friday.”
A geologist told CNN, “The energy released by the quake was the equivalent of 334 atomic bombs.” Warning CNN that aftershocks could be felt for months. Scientists say the quake occurred along the Sagaing fault, which runs north-south through Myanmar, and that it is a “strike-slip” fault, when two tectonic plates shift mostly horizontally.
