In the crowded streets of Bangkok, tall buildings built on porous ground blot out the skyline, and an earthquake of the magnitude that hit Christchurch, New Zealand, and Fukushima, Japan is a frightening thought, although a direct hit is not thought likely.
Bangkok has become a city of skyscrapers. Seismological experts are urging government agencies and building owners to think seriously about quake-proofing buildings following more frequent earthquakes in Thailand in recent times. KOSOL NAKACHOL
Nevertheless, the recent quakes that hit Phuket were felt in Bangkok, which caused enough concern among authorities to reconsider the city's earthquake-readiness.
As far as the experts are concerned, it was enough of a warning to prompt them to advise the government that state buildings, which would serve as disaster centres in the event the unlikely occurs, should be reinforced. It would as much as anything, they contend, provide at least some peace of mind for the city's residents.
Many natural disaster experts were recently invited to discuss the critical need for strengthened buildings in Thai cities, especially in Bangkok.
Foremost in their thinking is the need for central state buildings such as Government House and administration complexes to still be standing after a disaster to act as command centres for relief aid.
Panithan Lakkunaprasit, a professor of seismological engineering at Chulalongkorn University, said earthquakes can cause extraordinary loss of life and structural devastation. Yet the technology is there to minimise the impact of nature's formidable power.
It is also known that the extent of damage often exceeds people's expectations. More importantly, natural disasters are tough to predict.
Despite the complacency in Bangkok, more resources should be put into educating the people about what to do in the event of a disaster, Prof Panithan told the discussion titled "Bangkok: City of Safety ... Earthquakes and the People of Bangkok".
The forum was organised by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and the Association of Siamese Architects.
Prof Panithan said Phuket should not have degenerated into chaos in the recent quakes as the tremor measured just 4 on the Richter scale and was not strong enough to knock down steel-reinforced buildings.
It's his belief that Bangkok should lead the way in earthquake preparedness. There are roughly two million buildings in the capital so at the very least the government should test the strength of its own properties.
If they are below par, fix them, with special attention being paid to important buildings which house the government's administrative nerve centres.
To emphasise his point, the professor referred to the colossal earthquake in Haiti in which key buildings including the presidential palace were destroyed. Without the palace to function as a centre to distribute humanitarian and relief assistance, the country was left in chaos.
In Thailand, the heart of disaster preparation lies with securing Government House, the armed forces' headquarters, government office complexes and town halls.
Prof Panithan said the foundations of public utilities buildings essential for post-disaster operations must be assessed for quake tolerance.
He said there was no telling to what extent new, and supposedly stronger, buildings could handle tremors.
Calculating how quake-tolerant a building is cannot always be gauged by predictions of the intensity of a quake.
Says Prof Panithan, how far a building is likely to be from a quake's epicentre or how deep the quake is situated must also be factored in.
Suthas Leelatthaweewat, director of the Civil Engineering Technology Project at King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Thonburi, said more frequent quakes in Thailand in recent times have encouraged the idea of quake-proofing.
Quakes may occur less frequently than other natural disasters but when they do strike, heavy loss of life is to be expected.
Mr Suthas noted that even in countries well-equipped to deal with quakes such as New Zealand and Japan, damage from their recent disasters was tremendous.
Phuket should not disregard safety precautions because the island province sits on fault lines.
Mr Suthas said it was difficult to gauge to what strength of earthquake on the Richter scale a building could be designed to withstand.
Bangkok usually feels a tremor even when the epicentre is located far away because the soil beneath the city is soft and prone to shifting. A special structural design can help with jolt absorption.
Pinit Lert-udomthana, director of the building control division at the BMA, turned his comments into a call for responsible news reporting of quake disasters.
A recent news story painted a morbid picture of Bangkok by predicting a quake could bring about massive destruction because of the soft soil.
The story resulted in the BMA's civil engineering department being swamped with calls from people requesting inspection of buildings they live or work in to determine how quake-safe they are.
The BMA regularly inspects large buildings. He said some owners were reluctant to allow the BMA staff near their buildings for fear of unnerving tenants.