A jaw-dropping video captured during Myanmar’s devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake in March is being hailed as possibly the first-ever visual recording of a surface fault rupture in action. Filmed at the Green Power Energy Solar Project in Tha Pyay Wa, Mandalay, the footage shows the Earth violently splitting along the Sagaing Fault—one of Asia’s most active tectonic zones.
The video, which recently went viral on Reddit, begins moments before the quake hits. A gate swings open abruptly as the cement beneath it fractures. Within seconds, a vast fissure rips through the ground beyond the gate. The land on one side visibly shifts backward while dust clouds rise in the distance, illustrating the raw power of tectonic movement.
“This is the best video we have of a throughgoing surface rupture of a very large earthquake,” said Rick Aster, a geophysicist at Colorado State University, in an interview with Live Science. The Sagaing Fault is a strike-slip fault, meaning the plates move horizontally past one another, a motion clearly seen in the video.
The implications for seismology are significant. Aster suggested the footage will likely be studied in-depth and may contribute to future scientific publications—especially if researchers can verify its precise location and context.
Tragically, the earthquake has had far-reaching human costs. According to the United Nations, more than 3,800 people were killed, and thousands more were injured or displaced. Historic temples and homes were leveled. Myanmar, already grappling with a civil war and humanitarian crisis under a military junta, now faces further threats as monsoon season looms—raising fears of deadly landslides and flooding in the already devastated region.
