The powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck central Myanmar on March 28 has claimed thousands of lives and left thousands more injured. In neighbouring Thailand, people are also known to have died and thousands have had to be evacuated from buildings in Bangkok.

In response to the disaster, the Copernicus Emergency Management Service and the International Charter Space and Major Disasters have both been activated to provide satellite imagery to help relief efforts.

While news footage captures the devastation from the ground, this animation, which uses images from the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, reveals a distinct north-south rupture in the ground west of the Irrawaddy River, near Mandalay, the capital of Myanmar.

The image linked here, from 30 March also from Sentinel-2, provides a broader view of the area around the Irrawaddy River, and indicates the location featured in the animation.

Radar data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission is later expected to contribute to displacement maps, which will offer a more detailed analysis of ground movement caused by this devastating earthquake.