The United States Geological Survey
recorded a Magnitude 6.3 Earthquake at a depth of 10 km, in Lampa Province in southern Peru, slightly after 5.40 pm local
time (slightly after 10.40 pm GMT) on Thursday 1 December 2016. Around a hundred houses are reported to have been destroyed by the event, and at least 800 more have been damaged, as well as at least two schools and two churches.
The approximate location of the 1 December 2016 Lampa Province Earthquake. Google.
Peru is on the west coast of South America and the western margin of the
South American Plate, close to where the Nazca Plate, which underlies
part of the east Pacific, is being subducted along the Peru-Chile
Trench. The Nazca Plate passes under the South American Plate as it
sinks into the Earth, this is not a smooth process and the plates
repeatedly stick together then break apart as the pressure builds up,
causing Earthquakes. As the Nazca Plate sinks further it is partially
melted by the friction and the heat of the Earth's interior. Some of
this melted material then rises through the overlying South American
Plate, fuelling the volcanoes of Peru and neighbouring countries.
The subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath the South American Plate, and how it causes Earthquakes and volcanoes. Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center.
Witness
accounts of Earthquakes can help geologists to understand these events,
and the structures that cause them. The international non-profit
organization Earthquake Report is interested in hearing from people who may have felt this event; if you felt this quake then you can report it to Earthquake Report here.
See also...
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