{"id":85528,"date":"2025-07-23T09:07:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T09:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/85528\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T09:07:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T09:07:12","slug":"in-world-first-cctv-captures-supershear-velocity-earthquake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/85528\/","title":{"rendered":"In world first, CCTV captures supershear velocity earthquake"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earthquakes are violent events<\/a> that alter the face of the planet. In many cases, those changes occur beneath the surface<\/a> and only gradually become visible<\/a> over thousands of years. Occasionally, however, an earthquake\u2019s effects aren\u2019t just felt\u2014they\u2019re seen. It\u2019s even rarer to actually capture one of those moments on camera, but according to seismologists at Japan\u2019s Kyoto University, the footage highlights the first-known video<\/a> of a strike-slip fault. Their analysis, published in The Seismic Record<\/a>, has led to new findings based on real-time visual evidence of tectonic motion.<\/p>\n

The magnitude 7.7 event took place<\/a> on March 28 along the Sagaing Fault with an epicenter near Myanmar\u2019s second-largest city, Mandalay. Although the initial rupture process lasted barely 80 seconds, it and numerous aftershocks were ultimately responsible for 5,456 confirmed deaths and over 11,000 injuries. Later evaluations indicated the quake was the second deadliest in modern history, as well as the most powerful to hit Myanmar in over a century. According to a separate group\u2019s paper<\/a> published in the same journal, the southern portion of the rupture occurred at an astonishing 3.7 miles per second\u2014fast enough to qualify as \u201csupershear velocity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amid the catastrophe, an outdoor CCTV camera about 74.5 miles south of the epicenter recorded a visceral illustration of its power. Over just a few moments, what at first looks like a single chunk of the ground appears to suddenly divide and horizontally shift past one another in opposite directions. Completely by accident, the camera recorded a direct look of a strike-slip fault, something previously analyzed by remote seismic instruments. To researchers at Kyoto University, the clip wasn\u2019t just a jaw-dropping scene\u2014it was an opportunity to study a strike-slip fault using visual data.<\/p>\n

\"ScreenshotGeologists analyzed the brief video frame-by-frame to learn about the fault shift. Credit: KyotoU \/ Jesse Kearse<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not anticipate that this video record would provide such a rich variety of detailed observations,\u201d corresponding author and geologist Jesse Kearse said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cSuch kinematic data is critical for advancing our understanding of earthquake source physics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kearse and colleagues utilized a technique called pixel cross-correlation to analyze the fault movement on a frame-by-frame basis. Their findings showed the fault slipped horizontally by 8.2 feet in only 1.3 seconds, with a maximum speed of about 10.5 feet per second. While the movement matched experts\u2019 existing knowledge of strike-slip ruptures, the short duration and speed were new developments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe brief duration of motion confirms a pulse-like rupture, characterized by a concentrated burst of slip propagating along the fault, much like a ripple traveling down a rug when flicked from one end,\u201d Kearse explained.<\/p>\n

Additional examinations also proved that the slip path was slightly curved, confirming previous observations recorded elsewhere in the world. This means subtly curving strike-slips instead of totally linear ones may be the rule, not the exception.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, these observations establish a new benchmark for understanding dynamic rupture processes,\u201d the study\u2019s authors wrote, adding that the video offers real-time confirmation of curved slip paths while helping \u201cdeepen our understanding of the physical mechanisms that control rapid fault slip during large earthquakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such discoveries may also help seismologists, geologists, and urban planners design more resilient architecture<\/a> to ensure that when major earthquakes inevitably occur, their damage is minimized as much as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earthquakes are violent events that alter the face of the planet. In many cases, those changes occur beneath…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":85529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[57799,159,57801,57800,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-85528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-kyoto-university","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-seismologists","11":"tag-strike-slip-fault","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114901761777997784","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}