Massive Quake Rocks Myanmar
驚天巨震撼動緬甸

On March 28, the Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar was struck by a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake that claimed the lives of more than 3,000 people. The quake’s impact was so extensive that it caused the collapse of an unfinished high-rise building over 1,000 kilometers away in Bangkok, Thailand. Scientists said that the energy released by the earthquake exceeded that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in World War II.

Myanmar is highly prone to earthquakes as it sits at the convergence of four of the Earth’s tectonic plates and also has a major fault line, the Sagaing Fault. This fault runs north to south through the country and passes right through the city of Mandalay, which was near the epicenter of the earthquake. Years of political instability, ongoing civil conflict, and widespread corruption have undermined Myanmar’s ability to properly prepare for or respond to a natural disaster of this scale.

三月二十八日，東南亞國家緬甸遭受震矩規模 7.7（編按：芮氏規模 8.2）的強震侵襲，造成超過三千人死亡。這起地震的影響相當廣泛，甚至還導致一千多公里外在泰國曼谷的一棟未完工高樓倒塌。科學家表示，該地震釋放的能量超過二戰時投在日本廣島的原子彈所釋放的能量。

緬甸地處地球四大板塊的交界處，還有一條主要斷層 ── 實皆斷層，因此極易發生地震。實皆斷層自北向南貫穿緬甸，並穿過曼德勒市 ── 靠近此起地震的震央。多年來的政治動盪、持續的內戰以及普遍的貪腐現象，削弱了緬甸對這種規模的天災進行妥善準備或應對的能力…

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