Very strong shallow damaging earthquake close to Chiang Rai, Thailand – At least 1 dead and 32 injuries
Last update: May 6, 2014 at 3:44 pm by By
Update 15:37 UTC : A 4.7 aftershock has been reported a little while ago – This will go on for several weeks although the Magnitude will radually decrease BUT some big ones cannot be excluded ! This came in now : Chiang Rai Earthquake felt 20min ago. Desk was shaking & my drinks swapped forwards & backwards in the glass #Thailand #bangkok #earthquake
Update 14:57 UTC : @NickOlsen reports : 28 hours after the quake in Chiang Rai, the aftershocks are still going strong
Update 09:55 UTC : The Bangkok Post wrote a little earlier : Seven districts of Chiang Rai have been declared disaster-stricken areas to facilitate quick assistance for people affected by the earthquake that rocked the northern province on Monday evening. The declaration in the wake of the quake of the 6.3 magnitude quake covers Phan, Mae Lao, Mae Suai, Wiang Chai, Muang Chiang Rai, Pa Daet and Phaya Mengrai districts. More than 3,500 houses, 10 temples, three schools, three hospitals, a hotel and a road were damaged there.
Update 09:40 UTC : CHIANGRAI, 6 May 2914 (NNT) – Chiang Rai province is urging all sectors to assist victims from the earthquake especially in Mae Lao district and Phan district. So far it’s known that four houses totally collapsed in Mae Lao district. Reports to date say no one was wounded nor died (this is in conflict with reports we have seen in the Thai press).
Ajarn Chalermchai Kositpipat who built Wat Rong Khun has surveyed the damage that resulted from the earthquake and this morning’s aftershocks. Wat Rong Khun cannot be opened for visitors. The top of the Stupa at Wat Rong Khun fell off. Wall paintings were torn away and roof tiles fell off. Ajarn Chalermchai said there won’t be any reconstruction of this temple since he is far too old.
Meanwhile, the Chiang Rai Governor asks all sectors to assist as a matter of urgency and give aid to the victims. Moreover, Phan district has been declared a disaster area since it is situated at the quake’s epicenter.
Update 07:00 UTC : The map below shows the distribution of the strongest aftershocks. The last M5 was at an equal distance from the epicenter than Chiang Rai, but in the opposite direction. Our warning from yesterday is becoming reality. A shallow M5 can further damage houses and infrastructure!
– The number of wounded has in the meantime increased to 32
Important Update May 6, 04:30 UTC : Officials confirmed the death of at least one woman (83) from Mae Lao district, which was hit by a collapsing wall. At least 30 other people were injured.
Update 21:44 UTC : Below a recent aftershock measuring M4.4 at a depth of 13 km which sparked a readers peak. The colors are the shaking intensities. Red square is the 4.4 aftershock. The biggest blue square the mainshock and the smallest blue another 4.4 aftershock
Warning for Chiang Rai and for Mae Lao : The image below is also very good to see the distribution of the epicenters. Aftershocks can hit in a 0 to 50 km radius or even more. Both cities are within this radius and in case of a strong to very strong one, people should at all times be prepared.
Update 21:20 UTC : A new aftershock has just been reported from the epicenter area
Update 20:41 UTC : A security video from a Buddhist temple shows a) the serenity of the young monks and b) what happens when the shaking starts
Update 18:35 UTC : This evening, many families in Chiang Rai are sleeping outdoors due to many aftershocks
A reader wrote :
Heard loud noises like construction piling and thunder which got louder, followed by severe to violent shaking of the building, glass doors and curtains, lasting over 60 secs. Several aftershocks felt for the next 5 hours.
Update 17:10 UTC : Hard to believe that nobody got hurt during this earthquake when we look at the dame – Only 1 stone on somebody’s head can be fatal. May we be a little unsure about this NO injuries ! We will continue to look around the following hours to see whether we can keep the No injuries / No fatalities situation which we have now.
Update 16:49 UTC : We are happy that we have still no reports about injured people. Damage is hard to accept but can be repaired. Injured people or loss of live on the other hand is much harder to deal with. We had to delete the video because it restarted automatically after the refresh of the page. Click here to view it.
Update 15:01 UTC : The Thai Press is talking about the biggest Earthquake with an epicenter in Thailand since 100 years. We think they are wrong. Except for a very cruel one in 460 we could not find any other in the NOAA catalog since then, this makes the M6.0 to be the BIGGEST EARTHQUAKE SINCE 1554 YEARS ! (see also NOAA table with historic earthquakes below. Neighboring Myanmar had some bigger ones, but these epicenters were all across the border. Especially the Tashileik earthquake (Yellow encircled on the map) who occurred in 2011 was just across the border and maybe part of the same fault lines (has to be confirmed by scientists). That 2011 earthquake had sadly enough 75 fatalities. Many houses collapsed in Myanmar and more than 10,000 houses were damaged!
Update = After writing this update we found the following in the local press which we were not aware off as this quake wasn’t listed in the international NOAA catalog : Penneung (Asian Institute of Technology seismological expert Dr Penneung Wanitchai) said the quake, which damaged several properties, was the largest in Thailand since 1935, when a 6.5-magnitude quake hit Nan province and an area near the Lao border.
Update 15:01 UTC : The 2 YouTube videos below are telling us a lot about what happened.
* The supermarket video shows total chaos to get out of the building while the shaking was going on. With 0.5 Magnitude more you won’t be able to run away (to be compared with Beaufort 7 on a ship = running impossible) – This running away may lead to even more chaos + a lot of injuries.
* The parking lot video shows us in essence that the shaking lasted only a very short time and this is the main reason what we call until now a “lucky escape (no injuries or fatalities yet)” – Long strong shaking (30 seconds or more) makes many more houses and buildings to collapse !
Update 14:35 UTC : The earthquake occurred close to the border of Myanmar and we have some preliminary reports that damage was also recorded in Myanmar. Tashileik is a city closest to the epicenter in Myanmar. Doi Pha Hom Pok and Haui Nam Dang National Park are National Parks in Thaland to the west of the epicenter but still within what we see as a potential damaging area. The tallest peak is Doi Pha Hom Pok at 2,285 meters the third highest in Thailand. This indicates at the same time that the risk for damaging/injuring landslides in the area is a reality. The Park has some thermal spring confirming the activity in the underground.
Update 14:25 UTC : Thai sources are reporting that this earthquake was the strongest they had during the last 100 years!
Update 14:08 UTC : The Airport of Chiang Rai is functioning again like nothing happened. What with an eventual strong aftershock while a plane is lifting or landing? Has anyone looked into this risk ? This was a major earthquake at very close distance from an important airport! A very strong aftershock is a real possibility as the ground layers have to find a new balance !
Update 13:52 UTC : It is currently 20:52 in Thailand. The evening and night will be an additional backlash for SAR (Search and Rescue) teams and Civil Defense personnel.
Update 13:47 UTC : It was in the north part though .. in Chiang Rai, Thailand .. but lots of roads damaged and houses/buildings fallen – This does not look comforting at all – we are still looking for news of eventual injuries. When we get it (hope we dont find it) we will write it in an update
Update 13:30 UTC : A reader of wiangpapao just wrote : 2 hours later still have some aftershocks
Update 13:19 UTC : We have found out that the Chiang Rai hospital has been damaged also (mainly cracks in walls). Useless to say that there where widespread blackouts
Update 12:53 UTC : People in the epicenter area are reporting a lot of aftershocks
Update 12:45 UTC : Reports which we received from our own readers and from close to the epicenter. Mixed reports which are due to the house or office they are living in and also the underground of their houses. We truly thank our readers for sharing their experiences with our readers.
Update 12:45 UTC : reports of fallen ceilings in Chiang Rai Airport and in residential houses
Update 12:26 UTC : So far only images and reports of a lot of damage (will run into the millions of $). No word of any injuries or even worse fatalities so far.
Update 12:19 UTC : On some places the ground has been ruptured totally as can be seen here on the Facebook photo from https://www.facebook.com/stephendarby77?fref=photo (the way to his house !)
Important Update 12:08 UTC : Based on the USGS data, Max Wyss who is specialized in the theoretical calculation of possible fatalities / injured, he reports that ESTIMATE OF HUMAN LOSSES = Injured Exp. min/max: 300/2000 and Fatalities Exp. min/max: 100/600.
Update 12:04 UTC : The picture below (courtesy Twitter account @Mtjunerr) shows what we mentioned a little earlier. It will certainly be the first one in a series of many.
Update 12:02 UTC : Some experience reports are being send in from Myanmar, but we believe (100% sure) that it will have been felt also in neighboring China (Yunnan) and Laos.
Update 11:57 UTC : The historic earthquake list for Thailand is giving us hope.
Update 11:45 UTC : What we expected has been confirmed. This earthquake is a dangerous strike/slip earthquake where the main movement of the ground is horizontal. Houses who are not build with an earthquake resistance have a hard time to survive in the epicenter area. The movement can either be from the North-West to the South-East or or from the South-West to the North-East (white plane to the orange planes)
Update 11:38 UTC : At ER we think that the shaking values in the (theoretical) USGS tables below are a little exaggerated based on the testimonies we receive from Chiang Rai (about 1 point)
Update 11:34 UTC : Earthquake-report.com reader messages are giving us hope that the damage will not be widespread as a number of people living in Chiang Rai are telling us that they had NO damage + the MMI values they are telling us are confirming this hope : Max. strong shaking
Update 11:29 UTC : Earthquake-report.com does expect certainly a lot of damage and even injuries based on the current seismological data.
Update 11:28 UTC : Good News AND Very bad news : The preliminary Magnitude has been decreased by USGS to M6.0 BUT the depth has now been set at only 7 km. That is exstremely shallow and makes this earthquake much more dangerous !
Update 11:20 UTC : Following EMSC is the epicenter at only 11 km from Chiang Rai !
356 km NW of Vientiane, Laos / pop: 196,731 / local time: 18:08:47.0 2014-05-05
11 km S of Chiang Rai, Thailand / pop: 78,756 / local time: 18:08:47.0 2014-05-05
Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 6
Local Time (conversion only below land) : 2014-05-05 18:08:47
GMT/UTC Time : 2014-05-05 11:08:47
Depth (Hypocenter) : 2 km
from: http://earthquake-report.com/2014/05/05/strong-earthquake-thailand-on-may-5-2014/