The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides.
Of all the ground impacts induced by large earthquakes, liquefaction often feels to be the most neglected. The costs can be savage, and the long term implications wide ranging.
In this context, a very interesting paper (Valkaniotis et al. 2026) has been published in the journal Engineering Geology, which documents the liquefaction induced by the 29 March 2025 Mw=7.7 Mandalay earthquake in Myanmar. Given the challenges of fieldwork in this highly contested area, the work has been conducted medium resolution remote sensing.
It is an excellent study that demonstrates that liquefaction was extremely wide-ranging. The authors have documented 18,000 locations in which liquefaction has occurred, with the distribution being controlled by both proximity to the rupture (and not to the epicentre) and by the geology. The presence of thick deposits of Holocene fluvial materials, which occur widely in this area, allowed extensive liquefaction to occur.
One aspect that I found particularly interesting, and highly informative, is the comparison of the utility of satellite images with different resolutions for mapping liquefaction features. In particular, they show that 10 metre resolution Sentinel 2 images are useful for mapping liquefaction. So, I thought I’d take a look at the utility of Planet Labs imagery in this context.
One example that Valkaniotis et al. (2026) provide lies at [22.311, 96.012]. The Planet Labs image below shows this area as of 16 March 2025, a few days before the Mandalay earthquake:-
Satellite image of an area of Myanmar prior to the 2025 Mandalay earthquake. Image copyright
Planet Labs, used with permission, collected on 16 March 2025.
And this is the same area on 31 March 2025, three days after the eartuqkae:-
Satellite image of an area of Myanmar after the 2025 Mandalay earthquake. Image copyright
Planet Labs, used with permission, collected on 31 March 2025.
And here is a slider to compare the two images:-
Images by Planet Labs.
In the second image, there are hundreds of areas of exposed fluvial deposits (the light coloured patches) that are not present in the first image. These are the areas of liquefaction mapped by Valkaniotis et al. (2026). I think there may also be some locations in which lateral spreads are visible too, but this is less clear.
This is a fascinating finding, which will be very helpful in assessing post-seismic impacts in the future.
The extant of the liquefaction after the 2025 Mandalay earthquake is very interesting. At the end of the day, studies like this provide insight into the response of the ground to large earthquakes, and in turn this is intended to allow us to build resilience to these events. Valkaniotis et al. (2026) conclude their article as follows:-
“The 2025 Mandalay event serves as a reminder that liquefaction remains one of the most devastating secondary hazards associated with strong earthquakes, especially in densely populated floodplains with complex dynamic fluvial histories. The insights gained from this inventory can not only enhance national seismic resilience efforts in Myanmar but also contribute to the better understanding of liquefaction behavior in large strike-slip earthquakes worldwide.”
Quite.
Reference and acknowledgement
Valkaniotis, S. et al. 2026. Regional-scale inventory and initial analysis of liquefaction triggered by the 2025 Mw 7.7 Mandalay earthquake, Myanmar. Engineering Geology,
363. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2026.108543.
Many thanks to the wonderful people at Planet Labs for providing access to the satellite imagery.
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Text © 2026. The authors.
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