Why was the earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand so devastating?

为何缅甸和泰国发生的地震破坏力如此巨大？

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake in Myanmar caused widespread shaking and likely considerable damage because of a lack of buildings built to withstand temblors

缅甸发生的里氏7.7级地震引发了大面积的震动，并可能造成了严重的破坏，因为当地缺乏能够抵御地震的建筑物

On March 28, at around midday local time, tens of millions of people in Southeast Asia felt the earth below their feet violently rupture. A magnitude 7.7 earthquake, centered just 12 miles away from Mandalay, Myanmar, shook the region—causing streets to buckle, ancient pagodas to crumble, bridges to shatter and houses to collapse. Entire neighborhoods were devastated in a matter of seconds.

3月28日，当地时间中午时分左右，东南亚地区数千万人感觉到脚下的大地猛烈地颤动。一场震级为7.7级的地震袭击了该区域，震中位于缅甸曼德勒市仅12英里之外——这场地震致使街道出现了变形下陷、古老的佛塔坍塌、桥梁断裂以及房屋倒塌。顷刻之间，整片街区化为废墟。

The earthquake’s energy release was comparable to that of several hundred nuclear weapon explosions.

此次地震释放的能量相当于几百枚核武器爆炸的威力。

“The magnitude of this event was so high that it was felt in neighboring countries,” says Amilcar Carrera-Cevallos, an earthquake scientist at the Vicente Rocafuerte Secular University of Guayaquil in Ecuador.

阿米尔卡·卡雷拉-塞瓦略斯（Amilcar Carrera-Cevallos）是厄瓜多尔瓜亚基尔维森特·罗卡富埃尔特世俗大学（Vicente Rocafuerte Secular University of Guayaquil in Ecuador）的地震学家，他表示：“这次地震的震级非常高，邻国都有震感。”

A 30-story skyscraper under construction in Bangkok—600 miles from the quake’s epicenter — disintegrated.

距离震中600英里的曼谷，一座正在建设中的30层摩天大楼也因此倒塌了。

According to estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey, there will be thousands, if not tens of thousands, of casualties, as well as tens of billions of dollars of economic damage.

据美国地质调查局估计，即便没有上万人，也会有数千人伤亡，同时还会造成数百亿美元的经济损失。

Many factors conspired to make this earthquake a disaster, including a lack of quake-proofing measures in buildings across the region.

许多因素的共同作用下导致这次地震成为了一场灾难，其中一个因素是该地区各地的建筑物普遍缺乏抗震措施。

Few of the structures could withstand this monster of a temblor, which was “a really big, shallow earthquake” — meaning it occurred relatively close to the Earth’s surface, says Judith Hubbard, an earthquake scientist at Cornell University. ***