Earthquakes in Myanmar: Live Map & the Sagaing Fault

Myanmar is one of Southeast Asia's most earthquake-prone countries, split lengthwise by the Sagaing Fault — a roughly 1,200 km strike-slip fault, similar in character to California's San Andreas, that runs almost the entire length of the country from north to south and passes close to Mandalay, Naypyidaw and Yangon. Myanmar also sits at the edge of the collision zone between the Indian and Eurasian plates, which builds the Himalayas to the north and drives subduction along the Indo-Burma Ranges to the west.

In March 2025, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake ruptured a long segment of the Sagaing Fault near Mandalay and Sagaing, one of the most powerful and destructive earthquakes in the country's modern history, collapsing buildings, bridges and pagodas across central Myanmar and killing thousands of people. Earlier major events include the 1930 Bago earthquake and the 1912 Maymyo earthquake (M7.9), underlining that large, damaging ruptures on this fault system recur throughout the historical record.

Myanmar's Department of Meteorology and Hydrology monitors seismic activity nationally, but much of the country's building stock, especially outside major cities, is not built to modern seismic codes, which sharply increases the human toll of even moderate earthquakes. Because the Sagaing Fault runs directly beneath or near several of the country's largest population centres, seismologists consider central Myanmar one of the highest earthquake-risk zones in mainland Southeast Asia.