earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

measuring 8.0 struck

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

and the surrounding areas on 26 May 2019 at 02:41

local time Local time is the time observed in a specific locality. There is no canonical definition. Originally it was mean solar time, but since the introduction of time zones it is generally the time as determined by the time zone in effect, with dayligh ...

. It had a maximum perceived intensity of VII (''Very strong'') on the

Modified Mercalli intensity scale The Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MM, MMI, or MCS), developed from Giuseppe Mercalli's Mercalli intensity scale of 1902, is a seismic intensity scale used for measuring the intensity of shaking produced by an earthquake. It measures the effe ...

in the towns of

Yurimaguas Yurimaguas is a port town in the Loreto Region of the northeastern Peruvian Amazon. Historically associated with the Mainas missions, the culturally diverse town is affectionately known as the "Pearl of the Huallaga" (''Perla del Huallaga''). Yuri ...

and Lagunas. Two people died and a further 30 were injured. It was the strongest earthquake in 2019 by magnitude.

Tectonic setting

Peru lies above the

destructive plate boundary A convergent boundary (also known as a destructive boundary) is an area on Earth where two or more lithospheric plates collide. One plate eventually slides beneath the other, a process known as subduction. The subduction zone can be defined by a p ...

where the

Nazca Plate The Nazca Plate or Nasca Plate, named after the Nazca region of southern Peru, is an oceanic tectonic plate in the eastern Pacific Ocean basin off the west coast of South America. The ongoing subduction, along the Peru–Chile Trench, of the ...

subducts Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, the ...

beneath the

South American Plate The South American Plate is a major tectonic plate which includes the continent of South America as well as a sizable region of the Atlantic Ocean seabed extending eastward to the African Plate, with which it forms the southern part of the Mi ...

. The plates converge at a rate of 70 mm per year. The country has been affected by many large

megathrust earthquake Megathrust earthquakes occur at convergent plate boundaries, where one tectonic plate is forced underneath another. The earthquakes are caused by slip along the thrust fault that forms the contact between the two plates. These interplate eart ...

s caused by slip along the plate interface, such as the

1868 Arica earthquake The 1868 Arica earthquake occurred on 13 August 1868, near Arica, then part of Peru, now part of Chile, at 21:30 UTC. It had an estimated magnitude between 8.5 and 9.3. A tsunami (or multiple tsunamis) in the Pacific Ocean was produced by t ...

. There are also large earthquakes of intermediate depth caused by

faulting In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectoni ...

within the downgoing Nazca Plate.

Earthquake

The earthquake lasted for about 60 seconds, with most of the energy being released within a period of about 40–60 seconds. The earthquake's

epicenter The epicenter, epicentre () or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates. Surface damage Before the instrumental pe ...

was in the northern region of

, near

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar language, Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechuan ...

. This intermediate depth event (122.8 km) was caused by normal faulting within the Nazca Plate. Out of the two possible solutions of the

moment tensor The focal mechanism of an earthquake describes the deformation in the source region that generates the seismic waves. In the case of a fault-related event it refers to the orientation of the fault plane that slipped and the slip vector and i ...

, analysis of seismic waveforms suggests that the causative fault dips towards the east. The earthquake occurred in a region of the Nazca Plate where it transits from

flat slab subduction Flat slab subduction is characterized by a low subduction angle (<30 degrees to horizontal) beyond the seismogenic layer and a resumption of norma ...

to steep subduction. At this location, the plate bends to a steeper angle. An analysis of the event indicate

rupture Rupture may refer to: General * Rupture (engineering), a failure of tough ductile materials loaded in tension Anatomy and medicine * Abdominal hernia, formerly referred to as "a rupture" * Achilles tendon rupture * Rupture of membranes, a "wate ...

along a fault that measured 205 km by 105 km with an average rupture propagation velocity of 2.5 km/s. The rupture generated a maximum slip of 6.7 meters at the northern part of the rupture area. Two episodes of

seismic energy A seismic wave is a wave of acoustic energy that travels through the Earth. It can result from an earthquake, volcanic eruption, magma movement, a large landslide, and a large man-made explosion that produces low-frequency acoustic energy. S ...

release occurred within a span of 115 seconds.

InSAR Interferometric synthetic aperture radar, abbreviated InSAR (or deprecated IfSAR), is a radar technique used in geodesy and remote sensing. This geodetic method uses two or more synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images to generate maps of surface defor ...

data showed that the quake produced 47 cm of subsidence at the surface of the earth, north of the epicenter. Exactly three years after the earthquake occurred, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck the

Department of Puno Puno () is a department and region in southeastern Peru. It is the fifth largest department in Peru, after Cuzco, Madre de Dios, Ucayali, and Loreto. It is bordered by Bolivia on the east, the departments of Madre de Dios on the north, Cusco ...

. The earthquake was felt in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

Damage and casualties

Two people were killed and 15 others were injured in Peru, while a further 15 people were injured in Ecuador.

Peru

The President of Peru,

Martín Vizcarra Martín Alberto Vizcarra Cornejo (; born 22 March 1963) is a Peruvian engineer and politician who served as President of Peru from 2018 to 2020. Vizcarra previously served as Governor of the Department of Moquegua (2011–2014), First Vice Pre ...

, called for calm and said that he, along with his transportation minister, would evaluate the damage to roadways. Vizcarra also stated that other officials would evaluate damage to structures and any effects on a nearby reservoir. Many people evacuated homes and stores when the earthquake struck late at night. Some buildings, streets, and bridges suffered damage from the earthquake. The earthquake damaged 833 homes and left 404 of them uninhabitable. 38 health facilities were damaged, with 4 of them being rendered unusable. 111 schools were affected with 7 being put out of action.

Ecuador

Some damage was reported from the parts of Ecuador closest to the epicenter.

References

External links

* {{Earthquakes in Ecuador 2019 in Peru 2019 in Ecuador May 2019 events in Peru Earthquakes in Peru Earthquakes in Ecuador 2019 earthquakes 2019 disasters in Peru