Bangladesh sits atop one of the most geologically anxious pieces of real estate on Earth. To the north, the Shillong Plateau pushes southward along the Dauki fault. To the east, the Indo-Burman Ranges mark where the Indian plate grinds against the Burma plate in a slow-motion collision that has been folding and thrusting the sediments of the Bengal Basin for millions of years. That basin itself -- up to 20 kilometers of accumulated sediment -- is laced with faults, including the Dhaleswari and Padma faults near Dhaka. The epicenter of the November quake lay near Madhabdi, 14 kilometers southwest of Narsingdi, at a depth of just 10 kilometers. Shallow quakes are the dangerous kind. The energy has less distance to dissipate before it reaches the surface, and on 21 November, more than 10 million people in Dhaka felt strong shaking.

The damage unfolded in concentric rings from the epicenter. In Narsingdi District, closest to the source, over 100 people were injured and buildings buckled. In Dhaka, at least 300 structures sustained damage according to the district administration. A four-storey building collapsed in Gazipur. In Old Dhaka's Koshaituli area, a brick railing gave way and killed three people. At the University of Dhaka, 22 students were injured -- some by jumping from their dormitory windows in panic -- and at least 10 residence halls developed cracks. In Narayanganj, a wall fell on a newborn child, killing the infant. Seven power stations shut down, triggering rolling blackouts across the country. At Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, a test match between Bangladesh and Ireland halted for three minutes as spectators fled in all directions and Irish cricketers dropped to the ground.

Four aftershocks followed over the next two days, the largest measuring 4.3. Each one sent fresh waves of evacuation through a city already on edge. Students at the University of Dhaka slept outdoors, some camping outside the vice-chancellor's residence rather than returning to cracked dormitories. Jagannath University and Dhaka Medical College Hospital suspended academic activities. Schools across the city shifted to online instruction. Petrobangla, the state energy corporation, suspended all oil and gas exploration drilling nationwide for 48 hours. Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus convened an emergency meeting of earthquake experts on 24 November, which resulted in the creation of a national taskforce on earthquake preparedness -- an acknowledgment that the country's infrastructure was not built for what the faults beneath it are capable of delivering.

The November quake released the same amount of energy as the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, according to Rubayet Kabir of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department. Earthquake expert Humayun Akhtar called it the strongest in Bangladesh's recent history. But both men, along with their colleagues, emphasized the same terrifying point: this was a warning shot. Akhtar calculated that less than one percent of the energy stored in the regional subduction zone had been released. The Madhupur fault, which runs beneath Dhaka, is capable of generating earthquakes of magnitude 7 to 7.5 at any time. RAJUK, the capital's development authority, estimated that a magnitude 6.9 event on that fault could kill 210,000 people, injure 229,000 more, and collapse 865,000 buildings in Dhaka alone. The 2025 earthquake killed 10 people in a city of 22 million. The numbers describe what might happen when the full energy is finally released.