Dhaka, Nov. 21 -- The deadly 5.7-magnitude earthquake in Bangladesh on Friday morning may have been a "foreshock" signalling the possibility of a much stronger quake in the future, experts warned, pointing to the region's long-overdue seismic cycle and the country's widespread structural fragility.
Professor Mehedi Ahmed Ansary, a seismic engineering specialist at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), said historical patterns show the region experiences magnitude-7 earthquakes every 100-125 years and magnitude-8 events every 250-300 years.
"Since no such major earthquakes have occurred after 1930, a risk has developed," he noted.
He cited the area's history of devastating quakes since pre-Independence, including...