Friday, February 9, 2018

Earthquakes

As I stated last week, Peru sits on the boundary between the Nazca Plate and the South American Plate. These plates created the Andes Mountains and the volcanic chain. Because of Peru's location and the convergent boundary, earthquakes are quite common. The Nazca Plate moves approximately 65-80 millimeters per year depending on the area (USGS). So far this year, there has been 17 earthquakes in Peru with magnitudes ranging from 4.2 - 7.1(IRIS).
Screenshot from the USGS pdf

What is Peru doing to prevent a catastrophe? According to FEMA, Peru is... "working cooperatively with local organizations, various levels of government and NGOs [non-governmental organizations] to minimize disaster occurrence." It has created many publications about emergency management and has partnered up with the Intermediate Technology Development Group for recovery/reconstruction assistance. 
References:


IRIS; "Latest Earthquakes in the S America Region"

USGS; "Seismicity of the Earth 1900–2013Seismotectonics of South America (Nazca Plate Region)"
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3 comments:

  1. Linda ByrneFebruary 10, 2018 at 6:24 PM

    Hi Sol, I like your use of graphics and photos on your blog. The dots on the map representing locations of recent earthquakes clearly demonstrate where the tectonic plates are. I am still learning how to use the edit function on my blog and wish I could better align graphics for the best use of the image.

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  2. Jordyn TurnerFebruary 11, 2018 at 1:18 PM

    Hi Sol,
    My country is Brazil, which sits on the South American plate. Brazil's plate boundaries are divergent, meaning that the tectonic plates move away from each other. Since Peru sits on a convergent boundary, they experience bigger earthquakes than Brazil does on a divergent boundary. Brazil experiences more magnitude 3 earthquakes than any others, and only experiences a magnitude 5 earthquake once every 50 years.

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  3. UnknownFebruary 11, 2018 at 7:06 PM

    Hi Sol,
    I enjoyed your blog about earthquakes in Peru, it is very insightful and easy to follow. My country is Costa Rica and it suffers from volcanic activity and has frequent earthquakes as well. I never imagined earthquakes to be as frequent as I'm learning them to be. Great job on your blog!, love the background. :)

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