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 km west of the town, and was followed by an aftershock sequence including 14 events of Mw 6.0 to 7.0. The tide gauge at Coquimbo, 150 km north of the epicentre, recorded a tsunami lasting hours in which the first wave was not the largest. Reported effects in Chile were 15 dead, 34 injured, 6 missing and 16,646 left homeless, with shaking felt in Chile and Argentina. Magnitude estimates differ, from 8.3 to 8.4.

Origin time (UTC)

2015-09-16T22:54

Magnitude

8.3

Magnitude type

mww

Depth (km)

22.44

USGS event page

earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20003k7a

Category: Disasters & Incidents

Tags: chile, illapel, coquimbo, tsunami, subduction

Coordinates: -31.5729, -71.6744

Part of Earthquakes of magnitude 7.5 and above in South America since 1990

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