{"id":873364,"date":"2025-09-16T02:12:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T07:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/16\/caught-on-camera-rare-footage-reveals-how-a-giant-earthquake-tore-the-earth-in-seconds\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T02:12:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T07:12:04","slug":"caught-on-camera-rare-footage-reveals-how-a-giant-earthquake-tore-the-earth-in-seconds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/16\/caught-on-camera-rare-footage-reveals-how-a-giant-earthquake-tore-the-earth-in-seconds\/","title":{"rendered":"Caught on Camera: Rare Footage Reveals How a Giant Earthquake Tore the Earth in Seconds"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_487819\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-487819\"><a href=\"https:\/\/scitechdaily.com\/images\/Big-Earthquake-Crack-in-Asphalt-Road.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scitechdaily.com\/images\/Big-Earthquake-Crack-in-Asphalt-Road-777x518.jpg\" alt=\"Big Earthquake Crack in Asphalt Road\" width=\"777\" height=\"518\"  ><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-487819\">A CCTV video from Myanmar has revealed the first direct footage of a curved fault slip during an earthquake\u2014confirming long-held geological theories and deepening our understanding of rupture dynamics. Credit: Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>In a breakthrough moment, researchers captured the first-ever video of curved fault slip during Myanmar\u2019s recent magnitude 7.7 earthquake\u2014something long suspected from geological evidence but never seen in action.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>The astonishing footage, posted to YouTube, sparked a deeper analysis by geophysicists who confirmed that the slip followed a downward-curved path, matching patterns previously deduced from ancient slickenlines.<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Thrilling Discovery From Earthquake CCTV<\/h4>\n<p>A recently uploaded CCTV video from Myanmar showing a fault slipping during a powerful earthquake quickly captured attention on YouTube, exciting both geologists and everyday viewers. But for geophysicist Jesse Kearse, it wasn\u2019t until his fifth or sixth time watching that he noticed something even more remarkable.<\/p>\n<p>Kearse, along with his colleague Yoshihiro Kaneko from Kyoto University, took a closer look at the footage and realized it contained what may be the first direct visual documentation of curved fault slip.<\/p>\n<p>Geologists studying earthquakes have long observed curved slickenlines\u2014grooved markings left behind when blocks of rock move past one another during faulting. However, until this video surfaced, scientists had not seen visual confirmation that such curved slip motion actually occurs.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Pulse-like rupture and curved slip - Analysis of Myanmar earthquake rupture\" width=\"788\" height=\"591\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dbEYe65eDdw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>CCTV footage of the fault slip during the 2025 Myanmar Earthquake.<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>First Glimpse of Curved Fault Slip<\/h4>\n<p>In their study published in <em>The Seismic Record<\/em>, Kearse and Kaneko explain that this footage provides key insight for improving computer models of how earthquakes unfold and faults rupture.<\/p>\n<p>The video was recorded by a security camera positioned near the surface trace of the Sagaing Fault in Myanmar. On March 28, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake ruptured the fault. The camera, located roughly 20 meters (~65 feet) east of the fault and about 120 kilometers (~75 miles) from the earthquake\u2019s hypocenter, captured what appears to be the ground shifting in real time.<\/p>\n<p>What makes the footage extraordinary is the clarity with which it shows the fault in motion. After the initial shaking, viewers can clearly see the land to the west of the fault moving northward\u2014a striking, real-world visualization of seismic forces in action.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_487512\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-487512\"><a href=\"https:\/\/scitechdaily.com\/images\/Earthquake-Caught-on-Camera-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scitechdaily.com\/images\/Earthquake-Caught-on-Camera-777x325.jpg\" alt=\"Earthquake Caught on Camera\" width=\"777\" height=\"325\"  ><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-487512\">CCTV caught footage of the earthquake. Credit: KyotoU \/ Jesse Kearse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h4>Chills and Curves: A Scientist\u2019s Obsession<\/h4>\n<p>\u201cI saw this on YouTube an hour or two after it was uploaded, and it sent chills down my spine straight away,\u201d Kearse recalled. \u201cIt shows something that I think every earthquake scientist has been desperate to see, and it was just right there, so very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Watching it over and over again, he noticed something else.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInstead of things moving straight across the video screen, they moved along a curved path that has a convexity downwards, which instantly started bells ringing in my head,\u201d Kearse said, \u201cbecause some of my previous research has been specifically on curvature of fault slip, but from the geological record.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4>Connecting Video to Past Earthquakes<\/h4>\n<p>Kearse had studied curved slickenlines associated with other earthquakes, such as the 2016 magnitude 7.8 Kaikoura earthquake in New Zealand, and their implications for understanding how faults rupture.<\/p>\n<p>With the Myanmar video, \u201cwe set about to quantify the movement a bit more carefully, to extract objective quantitative information from the video rather than just pointing at it to say, look, it\u2019s curved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers decided to track the movement of objects in the video by pixel cross correlation, frame by frame. The analysis helped them measure the rate and direction of fault motion during the earthquake.<\/p>\n<h4>Pulse-Like Quake Motion Quantified<\/h4>\n<p>They conclude that the fault slipped 2.5 meters for roughly 1.3 seconds, at a peak velocity of about 3.2 meters per second. This shows that the earthquake was pulse-like, which is a major discovery and confirms previous inferences made from seismic waveforms of other earthquakes. In addition, most of the fault motion is strike-slip, with a brief dip-slip component.<\/p>\n<p>The slip curves rapidly at first, as it accelerates to top velocity, then remains linear as the slip slows down, the researchers found.<\/p>\n<p>The pattern fits with what earthquake scientists had previously proposed about slip curvature, that it might occur in part because stresses on the fault near the ground surface are relatively low.<\/p>\n<h4>Groundbreaking Implications for Fault Dynamics<\/h4>\n<p>\u201cThe dynamic stresses of the earthquake as it\u2019s approaching and begins to rupture the fault near the ground surface are able to induce an obliquity to the fault movement,\u201d said Kearse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese transient stresses push the fault off its intended course initially, and then it catches itself and does what it\u2019s supposed to do, after that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The researchers previously concluded that the type of slip curvature\u2014whether it curves in one direction, or in the other\u2014is dependent on the direction that the rupture travels, and is consistent with the north to south rupture of the Myanmar earthquake. This means that slickenlines can record the dynamics of past earthquakes, which can be useful for understanding future seismic risks.<\/p>\n<p>Reference: \u201cCurved Fault Slip Captured by CCTV Video During the 2025 Mw\u00a07.7 Myanmar Earthquake\u201d by Jesse Kearse and Yoshihiro Kaneko, 18 July 2025,\u00a0<i>The Seismic Record<\/i>.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1785\/0320250024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DOI: 10.1785\/0320250024<\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Never miss a breakthrough: <a href=\"https:\/\/scitechdaily.com\/newsletter\/\">Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/scitechdaily.com\/caught-on-camera-rare-footage-reveals-how-a-giant-earthquake-tore-the-earth-in-seconds\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A CCTV video from Myanmar has revealed the first direct footage of a curved fault slip during an earthquake\u2014confirming long-held geological theories and deepening our understanding of rupture dynamics. Credit: Shutterstock In a breakthrough moment, researchers captured the first-ever video of curved fault slip during Myanmar\u2019s recent magnitude 7.7 earthquake\u2014something long suspected from geological evidence [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":873365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2535,412,104640],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-873364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-camera","8":"category-caught","9":"category-youtube-videos"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}