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The 2011 Tarlay Earthquake and Active Tectonics in Paleo-tethys Suture Zone
in Myanmar

Article  in  Acta Geoscientica Sinica · October 2012

DOI: 10.3975/cagsb.2012.s1.03

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 2012 年 10 月 地 球 学 报 Oct. 2012
第 33 卷 增刊 1: 4-6 Acta Geoscientica Sinica Vol.33 Supp.1: 4-6

www.cagsbulletin.com www.地球学报.com

doi: 10.3975/cagsb.2012.s1.03

缅甸 Tarlay 2011 年地震与古特提斯缝合带的

活动构造
The 2011 Tarlay Earthquake and Active Tectonics in Paleo-tethys
Suture Zone in Myanmar

Hla Hla AUNG

Myanmar Earthquake Committee, MES Building, Hlaing University Campus, Hlaing Township, Yangon, Myanmar

Abstract: An earthquake of 6.8 magnitude struck the eastern Shan State in Myanmar at 20:29:30 Myanmar
Standard Time (01:55:12 PM UTC) on 24 March 2011. It is one of the earthquakes in plate-interior setting. Six
after-shocks occurred the same year. The nucleation point of this earthquake was defined by an epicenter at 20 km
west of Tarlay (20.705°N, 99.949°E) at a depth of 10 km and its magnitude was 6.8. The earthquake damage was
disastrous. The geological disasters were linearly distributed along the surface rupture zone. The earthquake
produced cracks, arch bend, erupting sand, gush water, etc. in many places. As a result of this strong earthquake,
224-305 houses were seriously damaged, 74 people were killed, 124 injured. The event was named after the
nearest village Tarlay and the NE-or ENE-striking Nan Ma fault was responsible for it. A detailed morphotectonic
study was carried out in the area using satellite image 1:24,000 scale aerial photographs and 1:63360 scale
topographic maps, to correlate the seismicity with tectonics. It is found that there are two prominent lineaments
striking in NE-or ENE- and N-S or NNE- SSW direction. The present-day deformation of the Than Lwin suture
zone is consistent with roughly NW-SE extension and NE-SW striking compression, but with more conjugate
strike-slip faulting and only minor normal faulting.
Key words: Tarley Earthquake; Active tectonics; Myanmar; Paleo-Tethys suture

be a result of offset and drag along the Red River su-

0 Introduction
The eastern Myanmar can be tectonically divided
into two terranes: Shan Massif in the west and the
Than Lwin fold belt to the east. The Than Lwin suture
zone is located between Loi-se-Loi-len fault and
Chiang Rai Tectonic Line. Southeastward extrusion of
the Indochina plate controls the active tectonics of
eastern Myanmar. The satellite imagery of the Shan
plateau (eastern Myanmar) shows a bookshelf-pattern
of conjugate active strike-slip faults arranged in par-
allel in NE-or ENE-WSW direction. Structurally, the
eastern Myanmar belongs to the Indochina plate which
is between the Red River fault and Papun – Three Pa-
goda fault. The topographic image in Paleo-Tethys
suture zone is charaterized by sigmoidal wrench
structures and is interpreted by the previous authors as
the trace of the Indosonian fold belt of Late Triassic
age. The folds turn abruptly northeastward approach-
ing the Red River fault, forming a large V-shaped re-
gional structure pointing towards southeast. The sig-
moidal wrench structures and the sigmoidal bends may
ture during extrusion of Indochina plate in 15 Ma to
35 Ma (Rangin, 1996-1999). Their shape may be in-
herited from the orgional grain of the Indosinian fold
belt which marked the site of closure of Paleo-Tethys
Ocean in Late Triassic-Jurassic age.
1 Active Tectonics in the suture zone
A detailed morphotectonic study was carried out
in the area using satellite image of 1:24,000 scale ae-
rial photographs and 1:63360 scale topographic maps,
to correlate the seismicity with tectonics. From these
studies, it is found that there are two prominent
lineaments striking in NE-or ENE- and N-S or NNE-
direction. The geomorphology of the Than Lwin su-
ture zone indicates a youthful topography character-
ized by deep gorges, narrow V-shaped valleys, rapids
and waterfalls and the sharpness of structural features,
suggesting that this region might be undergoing dras-
tic deformation since Neogene. From the studies of
satellite images, several lineaments are visible and
detailed mapping of these lineaments show the major

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 Supp.1 Hla Hla Aung: The 2011 Tarlay Earthquake and Active Tectonics in Paleo-tethys Suture Zone in Myanmar
NE-SW or ENE-WSW trending fabric of the Than
Lwin fold belt, the location of the Nan Ma fault, and
numerous other ENE-WSW striking faults. Strike-slip
faults in ENE-WSW direction and normal faults in
NE-to NNE-striking direction represent themselves as
tectonic lineaments within the broad, seismically ac-
tive belt of Than Lwin suture zone. NW-SE extension
is evident by the occurrence of brittle normal faults
and NE-to ENE-oriented sinistral strike-slip fault.
Within this zone is the trace of regional compression
in a NE-SW direction. This region is presently under-
going active tectonic deformation, as indicated by
current seismicity and earthquake focal mechanism
solution. Map of active faults has been drawn based on
Landsat TM images. Several NE-to ENE-oriented sin-
istral strike-slip faults that appear to be active on
Landsat images are Mae Chan fault, Nan Ma fault,
Menxing fault, Jinghong fault, Menglian fault and
Nanting fault in the north (Fig.1). These active faults
are probably results from bookshelf faulting due to
present NW-SE right-lateral shear parallel to the Red
River fault. Several zones of aligned short fault seg-
ments arranged in left-stepping en echelon pattern may
represent late-Cenozoic sinistral slip of through-going
fault system. Between these fault segments of a fault
zone, many of localized pull-apart basins occur at fault
bends or near the tips of the fault segment of NE- to
ENE-trending sinistral faults. These basins are Kyaing
Ton basin, Mongphat basin, Mong Yong basin, Tarlay
basin and Tar-chi Leik basin.
Active tectonics over much of eastern Myanmar
are compatible with NE-SW-striking maximum stress
and minimum stress striking NW-SE. In eastern
Myanmar, ENE- or NE-oriented faults that dominate
the crustal fabric are active as indicated by their
sharpness of their traces on satellite imagery and the
seismicity. Le Dain et al. (1984) summarized
Fig. 1 Map showing active tectonic lineaments on Landsat
TM imageries between latitudes 20° N-24° N, longitudes
98°E- 102°E in eastern Myanmar. Sharpness of their traces
and seismicity provide information on the active
deformation within the tectonic zone
5
the historical earthquakes of Myanmar in which earth-
quake of 26 December 1941, M=7; 16 April 1941, M-7;
2 February 1950, M=7.0 respectively occurred within
the broad seismically active belt. Laos earthquake of
16 May 2007 with M=6.3 occurred near Mae Chan
fault. The recent Tarlay earthquake of 24 March 2011
(M=6.8) occurred on the Nan Ma fault in eastern
Myanmar. Another earthquake occurred near the
trace of Loi-se-Loi-len fault, 25 miles northeast of
Nam Sam (Southern Shan State) on 8 November 2011
with magnitude 3.5 and an earthquake with magnitude
3.8 occurred 25 miles NE of Kun Hing (Southern Shan
State) near a fault very close to Than Lwin River. An
earthquake with magnitude 3.1 occurred on 27 June
2012 at 20 mile northwest of Tar-chi-leik (Southern
Shan State). Numerous events of earthquakes and
geometry on active faults clearly show that the active
tectonics of this region is dominated by strike-slip
faulting and normal faulting. The stress fields of the
region from the studies of focal mechanism solution of
earthquakes (CMT from Harvard and epicenters from
Engdhal, GIAC Report, Rangin 1996-1999) indicate
that this area has been undergoing NW-SE extension
and NE-SW compression.
2 Coseismic effects of the 2011 Tarlay Event
The most common coseismic features were sand
boils, ground rift, rise of ground, ground subsidence.
All these phenomena appear either together, in iso-
lated spots or in linear structures. There were ground
surface cracks in many places. Sand boil and gushing
water are often associated with ground rifts. The vol-
ume of sand extruded was large and found in the
paddy fields. In Tarlay, many ground fissures appeared
on the Tarlay Road. Graben-like step depression was
formed between two ground rifts. Wells overflowed,
some fell in, and some subsided in many places. Liq-
uefaction affected many paddy fields mostly in Tarlay,
Kyar-ku-ni and Nar Yawng villages. Morphological
changes leading to migration of spring from Nar
Yawng village to Kyar-ku ni village and sinking of the
ground are found in the area due to this earthquake
event. Serious damage, such as building collapse, slant
split are found in the region. The houses near the road
were out of the perpendicular and slant split. At the
sides of the road, a step zone occurred. A ground fis-
sure system appeared on the Tarlay Road. Ground dis-
placements are found in the paddy field. The surface
deformation is characterized by left-lateral strike-slip
faulting with horizontal displacement of 12 km on the
Mekong River (Source: EOS). The geological struc-
ture around the town is complex. Mong Lin, Nar
Yawng, Kya-Ku-Ni village-tracts are among the most
affected areas. The shock was felt in Northern
Thailand in the south and Laos in the east. The
Salween and the Mekong rivers are among the five riv-
ers, the general drainage from Tibetan plateau during the
 6 Acta Geoscientica Sinica
Neogene after the close of Himalayan movements
(Chhibber, 1934). If a crude estimate for the maximum
ages of these drainages is taken as Pleistocene (or ap-
proximately 1.8 Ma), the 12 km offset of the Mekong
river by this event (Source: EOS) indicates 7 mm slip
rate.
3 Possible style of deformation
The damage was distributed linearly north and
south of the epicentre. Some of the ground seismic
damage appears over a large area. Buildings are dam-
aged in different ways. Some buildings collapsed,
some split open and others settled unevenly. All of
these reflected the different basic geological condi-
tions. The factors controlling the damage caused by
earthquakes are the characteristics of the geological
structure. Earthquake damage is severe in regions near
the Nan-Ma fault. The Nan Ma fault is 210 km long,
trending ENE-WSW direction. It has a gently curved
trace extending from the southern part of two basins
located in south China and near its western end, and
its trace form the northern border of the Tarlay basin
where the NNE-oriented basin bounding normal fault
joins another fault segment of the Nan Ma fault on the
left. The Nan Ma fault accomodates the transfer of
extension for the Tarlay basin. The earthquake ampli-
fication can only be the result of the coseismic slip
which usually nucleates near the tip of one fault seg-
ment and tranfers to another fault segment on the left,
which allows the movement along the normal fault in
the fault zone. The fault is a simple transfer fault to
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Vol.33
accomodate differential motion between the two seg-
ments of the Nan Ma fault, arranged in left- stepping
en echelon pattern. The fault is 60 km north of the
Mae Chan fault which is also trending in NE- or
ENE-WSW direction.
4 Conclusion
Earthquake disasters are related to the local site
specific charateristics and seismic stress field. Co-
seismic changes like migration of spring and stream,
sinking of the ground are common styles of deforma-
tion during compressional earthquake. The 2011 earth-
quake event showed that earthquake along an
ENE-WSW striking Nan Ma fault was dominated by
left- lateral strike-slip faulting, which in turn gener-
ated the movement along the NNE-SSW trending
normal fault that bound the graben near Tarlay village.
The focal mechanism solution of this earthquake sug-
gests a strike-slip faulting. Therefore, the deformation
mode for Tarlay area is inferred basically to be a com-
bination of normal and strike-slip faulting. The fre-
quency level of earthquakes in the past and the re-
peatability of the seismic hazards are important factors
in determining the risk of earthquake hazards.
References:
LE DAIN A.Y, TAPPONIER P, MOLNAR P. 1984. Active faulting
and tectonics of Burma and surrounding regions. J. Geophys.
Res., 89(BI): 453-473.
RANGIN C et. al. GIAC Report,1996-1999.