While earthquakes are common in northern and southern parts of the African Rift, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake like the recent event in Myanmar is unlikely, Director of the Institute of Earthquake Prediction Theory and Mathematical Geophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences Petr Shebalin told Sputnik Africa.
He added that there's no direct link between the Myanmar earthquake and increased seismic activity in East Africa; the only thing that they have in common is that they're both caused by tectonic shifts. Shebalin noted that precisely predicting future high-risk zones is currently impossible.
The volcanic activity in the East African Rift leads to frequent, smaller earthquakes and prevents the build-up of stress necessary for a major event like the one in Myanmar, Atalay Ayele, Senior seismologist in Institute of Geophysics, Space Science and Astronomy at Addis Ababa University, said in an interview with Sputnik Africa.
Concerning the reported increase in earthquake frequency in East Africa, particularly Ethiopia, the expert noted that the reported earthquake frequency is within a normal range for the active rift zone, characterized by fluctuating activity.