On Friday, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck a fault in Myanmar, killing more than 2,000 people and shaking buildings as far as Bangkok, in neighboring Thailand. What caused this quake and could it happen in the United States? Dr. Lucy Jones, renowned seismologist, joined ForbesWomen editor Maggie McGrath to answer these questions and talk about the size and scale of the earthquake’s damage.
“In terms of societal impact, this will be one of the very highest,” Jones said, noting that economic losses from this earthquake are projected to fall somewhere between $10 billion and $100 billion, which would exceed the entire GDP of Myanmar.
Jones also talked about what it takes to predict and protect ourselves from earthquake damages—and the likelihood of a similar-magnitude quake hitting the United States.
“We are absolutely certain that an earthquake very similar to this will happen in northern ca and another one in southern ca, because we have those faults there—they have to move; that’s basic plate tectonics,” she said. “When they move is the part we can’t predict.”
Watch the full conversation here or in the video player above.