Yuanshi Wang Yu-Ting Kuo Catherine Elise Hanagan Alexandra Elise Hatem Christopher B. DuRoss Chun-Chi Chen Dara Elyse Goldberg Harriet Zoe Yin Richard W. Briggs Jessica A. Thompson Jobe Sylvia R. Nicovich Emerson Madelyn Lynch Joseph Hoss Powell William D. Barnhart Robert G. Schmitt Nadine G. Reitman 2026 <p>The 2025 <strong><i>M</i>_w</strong> 7.7 Mandalay, Burma (Myanmar), earthquake ruptured 475 km of the central Sagaing fault and is the longest continental strike-slip rupture on record. The observed rupture length is 1.6–4.7 times the value expected (100–300 km) from existing length-magnitude scaling relations for strike-slip earthquakes. The earthquake resulted from shallow dextral faulting and ruptured bilaterally with supershear speeds south of the epicenter, rupturing close to three major cities in Myanmar and exposing over six million people to violent or extreme shaking. We report on the surface rupture character, length, and slip distribution based on sub-pixel correlation of Sentinel-2 (10 m) and Planet Dove (3 m) optical images and visual analysis of SkySat and WorldView (0.3–0.5 m) optical images. The earthquake had moderate surface slip (average = 3.3 m, maximum = 5.6 m, 25–75% range = 3.0–4.0 m), narrow deformation zone width (1–10 pixels in sub-pixel correlation and up to 190 meters for the detailed surface rupture mapping), and simple fault geometry (no stepovers or large changes in strike, 87% of the rupture that was mapped in detail is single-stranded). We attribute the extreme length of the Mandalay earthquake to supershear rupture speed, simple fault geometry, narrow down-dip width, and moderate surface slip. Based on a compilation of 25 supershear strike-slip earthquakes (<i><strong>M</strong></i><strong>_w</strong>&nbsp;6.5–8.6; 1979–2025), we find that the rupture length of supershear earthquakes does not fit empirical scaling relationships for strike-slip earthquakes that predict length from magnitude. A length-magnitude scaling relationship based on supershear earthquakes has a best fit of <strong>log₁₀</strong>(surface rupture length) = 0.89 <strong><i>M</i>_w </strong>– 4.44, indicating that supershear earthquakes tend to be longer than their subshear counterparts for any given magnitude and thus may expose a greater population to shaking.</p> application/pdf 10.1785/0220250257 en GeoScienceWorld Surface rupture and slip distribution of the 2025 Mw7.7 Mandalay earthquake and updated length scaling of supershear earthquakes article