‘This is a very big earthquake’: The science behind Myanmar’s magnitude 7.7 earthquake

A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake hit central Myanmar (formerly Burma) Friday (March 28), shaking Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, as well as nearby countries, including China and Thailand, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported. The shallow earthquake struck at 12:50 p.m. local time (2:20 a.m. EDT) at a depth of about 6.2 miles (10 kilometers), the USGS reported . Just 12 minutes later, a magnitude 6.7 earthquake at the same depth shook south of the first one, and later that day, nine smaller earthquakes, ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 4.9, also hit the region. At least 144 people were killed…