Earthquakes of magnitude 7.5 and above in South America since 1990

Map of 19 locations in South America

A chronological record of the largest instrumentally recorded ruptures along the South American margin over the past three decades, from deep-focus shocks beneath the Amazon basin to megathrust events on the Nazca plate interface. Each entry is a past event, set down from catalogue positions and from the reports, seismological studies and press coverage written at the time.

Places in this collection

  • 2021 Barranca, Peru earthquake — The shock struck northern Peru early on a Sunday, with its epicentre in the Amazon region 42 kilometres north-northwest of the city of Barr…
  • 2019 northern Peru earthquake — The rupture hit northern Peru on Sunday 26 May, toppling houses, blocking roads and knocking out power in parts of the country. One person…
  • 2019 Morona Santiago earthquake — The shock struck southern Ecuador close to the border with Peru, placed by the US Geological Survey 71 miles southeast of the town of Palor…
  • 2016 Quellón earthquake — The rupture occurred off Chiloé island in southern Chile on Christmas Day, with the epicentre about 39 km southwest of the port of Quellón,…
  • 2016 Ecuador earthquake — The shock struck northern Ecuador at 18:58 local time on a Saturday, with the epicentre 27 kilometres from the coastal town of Muisne, west…
  • 2015 Peru-Brazil border earthquake — This was the first of two similarly sized shocks near the Peru-Brazil border in southeast Peru. Both resulted from normal faulting at a dep…
  • 2015 Illapel earthquake — The rupture broke a shallow-angle thrust fault on the interface between the Nazca and South America plates offshore of Illapel, around 54 k…
  • 2014 Iquique earthquake aftershock — The largest aftershock of the Iquique sequence struck at 23:43 local time on 2 April, with the epicentre 53 km southwest of Iquique, off th…
  • 2014 Iquique earthquake — The megathrust rupture struck off the coast of northern Chile at 20:46 local time, with the epicentre about 95 kilometres northwest of Iqui…
  • 2010 Maule earthquake — The megathrust rupture off the coast of central Chile began at 03:34 local time and broke an inclined area of more than 80,000 square kilom…
  • 2007 Tocopilla earthquake — The shock struck northern Chile at 15:40 UTC, with the epicentre placed about 24 km east of Tocopilla and 112 km west of Calama. The seismo…
  • 2007 Peru earthquake — The rupture hit the central coast of Peru at 18:40:57 local time and lasted two minutes. The tsunami it generated flooded part of Lima's Co…
  • 2005 Yurimaguas earthquake — The shock struck northern Peru at 20:55 local time on 25 September, with the epicentre placed near Yurimaguas, a town of about 41,800 peopl…
  • 2005 Iquique earthquake — The rupture was located inland of the coast, east-northeast of Iquique in northern Chile, at intermediate depth within the subducting slab…
  • 2001 Punta de Bombón earthquake — The shock struck at 04:38 local time with its epicentre 51 km southwest of Punta de Bombón, in Peru's Arequipa region. Catalogue records pl…
  • 1996 Nazca earthquake — The rupture occurred offshore near Nazca, Peru, at 11:59 local time, and generated a small tsunami: recorded peak-to-trough wave heights we…
  • 1996 Puerto Santa earthquake — The shock was located offshore from Puerto Santa, in Peru's Ancash region, on the northern coast. Catalogue records place it at a shallow d…
  • 1995 Antofagasta earthquake — The subduction rupture off northern Chile struck the Antofagasta region at 1:15 local time, as reported by the European Southern Observator…
  • 1994 Bolivia earthquake — The shock struck at 20:33 local time on 8 June, with its epicentre in a sparsely populated stretch of Amazon jungle north-northwest of Reye…

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