Today, Friday 28 June 2024, at 00:36 (local time, 7:36 in Italy), a violent earthquake struck the Peru with a strong shock of magnitude 7.2 with epicenter in the Pacific Ocean at approximately 2 km from the coast and 8 km from the city of Atiquipa, fortunately without causing casualties. The quake recorded a rather shallow depth, just 28 km: for this very reason it was felt so intensely by the population.
Initially, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC), i.e. the center responsible for issuing tsunami warnings, had hypothesized possible tsunami waves with heights ranging from between 1 and 3 meters but, fortunately, the alarm was later called off.
According to initial data, the USGS estimates a value on the Mercalli Temperature Scale (MCS) of VII degree in areas close to the epicentre, equivalent to strong tremors capable of damaging some buildings.
But what caused this very violent earthquake? Peru It is located along the so-called “Ring of Fire”, a very long area around the Pacific Ocean along which many earthquakes occur. Specifically, today’s shock was caused by the subduction of the plate Nazca below that South American and it is precisely this movement that over time has given rise to numerous tremors. This is clearly visible in the image below: each earthquake is a circle, the size is proportional to the magnitude and the darker they are, the deeper they are.
Subduction between plates along the Ring of Fire was in the past also responsible for the earthquake in Valdivia, Chile, the strongest ever recorded and with a magnitude of 9.5.
