2007 Peru earthquake
Template: Infobox earthquake / maintenance / property missing
Location Map of magnitude of the earthquake
(50 km west of Chincha Alta)
- Chincha Alta
- Pisco
- Ica
- San Vicente de Cañete
The Peru earthquake of 2007 was a very strong earthquake that occurred on August 15, 2007 at the coast of the Andean nation of Peru in South America. The earthquake began at 23:40:56 UTC clock ( clock 18:40:56 local time) and lasted about two minutes. The hypocenter was about 150 km southeast of Lima at a depth of 30 km. Due to the U.S. Geological Survey reported that the earthquake on the moment magnitude scale the value MW = reached 8.0.
Tsunami warning
Because of the strength of the vibrations to a tsunami warning had been issued for Peru, Ecuador, Chile and Colombia. Also for Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico and Honduras such a warning was published, which was repealed after the arrival of only 25 centimeters high wave on the coast.
The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a warning that the Japanese island of Hokkaido on Thursday 16 August, around 19:00 UTC could be achieved by a tidal wave.
Follow
The earthquake more than 510 people were killed and 1,600 injured.
The cities of Ica, San Vicente de Cañete and Chincha Alta were most affected by the earthquake, but also in Pucallpa, Iquitos, Contamana, Trujillo, Cajamarca and Lima the capital losses were recorded. In Ica 17 people were killed in a church and more than 70 were injured when it collapsed. They had attended a Catholic Mass on the occasion of the holiday of the Assumption.
The town of Pisco, about 260 km to the southeast of Lima, was alone at more than two hundred dead victim balance and was destroyed to 80 percent. In total, more than 85,000 houses were destroyed by the earthquake.
An aftershock with a magnitude of 5.8 occurred at 19:02 local time clock and had had its epicenter 113 km northeast of Chincha Alta and another aftershock at 19:19 local time clock its epicenter 48 km south-southwest of Ica. Of the more than 70 aftershocks recorded at least a dozen more were still more than 5.0 on the magnitude scale. ,
Through an airlift injured were flown to Lima from Pisco from its airport, which could not be treated in local hospitals.
Tectonic overview
The hypocenter of the quake was at a point where the Nazca plate subducted under the South American Plate. Both plates move each year with 78 mm to each other. The Peruvian coast is therefore regularly affected by some strong earthquakes. The earthquake of 15 August 2007 occurred almost at the same location as two previous major earthquakes, in 1908 and 1974., The strongest earthquake in Peru in 1868 occurred and reached the magnitude value 9 At that time caused a tsunami along the South American coast killed thousands and caused significant damage on Hawaii.