Earthquakes are relatively frequent occurrences in Guatemala. The country lies in a major fault zone known as the Motagua and Chixoy-Polochic fault complex, which cuts across Guatemala and forms the tectonic boundary between the Caribbean plate and the North American plate. In addition, along Guatemala's western coast line, the Cocos plate pushes against the Caribbean plate, forming a subduction zone known as the Middle America Trench located approximately 50 km off Guatemala's Pacific coast. This subduction zone led to the formation of the Central America Volcanic Arc, and is an important source of offshore earthquakes. Both these major tectonic processes have generated deformations within the Caribbean plate and produced secondary fault zones, like the Mixco, Jalpatagua, and Santa Catarina Pinula faults.
The most destructive earthquake in recent Guatemalan history was the 1976 quake with a magnitude of 7.5 Mw and a hypocenter depth of just 5 km. This shallow-focus earthquake, originating from the Motagua Fault, caused 23,000 fatalities, leaving 76,000 injured and causing widespread material damage. Surprisingly, the 7.9 Mw earthquake of 1942, though higher in magnitude, was much less destructive, in part because of its substantially deeper hypocenter depth of 60 km.
A number of earthquakes with low magnitudes caused major damage in very localized areas, which may in part be explained by their relatively shallow depth. This was the case with the 1985 Uspantán earthquake of 5.0 Mw with a depth of 5 km, which destroyed most buildings in the town of Uspantán, but caused little or no damage in the rest of the country.
Earthquakes
Guatemala is in constant earthquake activity. However, there are some earthquakes that are more notable due to the damage they have caused. Notable earthquakes in recent Guatemalan history include the following:
| Date | Event | Location | Mag. | MMI | Deaths | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1717-09-29 | 1717 Guatemala earthquake | Antigua Guatemala | 7.4 Mi | IX | |||
| 1751 | 1751 Guatemala earthquake | Antigua Guatemala | IX | ||||
| 1765-10-24 | 1765 Guatemala earthquake | Ostuncalco, Quetzaltenango | 7.6–8.2 Mi | VII | Duration of shaking reported at 7–8 minutes. | ||
| 1773-07-29 | 1773 Guatemala earthquake | Antigua Guatemala | 7.5 Mw | VII–VIII | 500–600 | Severe damage in Antigua Guatemala and left most of the city in rubble. | |
| 1816-07-22 | 1816 Guatemala earthquake | Alta Verapaz | 7.5 Mw | IX | 23 | see also Chixoy-Polochic Fault | |
| 1902-04-18 | 1902 Guatemala earthquake | Quetzaltenango, Guatemala City | 7.5 Mw | IX | 800–2,000 | see also 1902 eruption of Santa María | |
| 1914-03-08 | 1913 Guatemala earthquake | Cuilapa | 5.0 Ms | 60 | Destroyed the town of Cuilapa | ||
| 1917-12-26 | 1917 Guatemala earthquake | Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala City | 5.6 Mw | VII–IX | 250 | ||
| 1918-01-04 | 1918 Guatemala earthquake | Guatemala City | 6.0 Mw | VI | |||
| 1942-07-06 | 1942 Guatemala earthquake | Escuintla | 7.7 Mw | IX | 38 | Landslides. | |
| 1959-02-20 | 1959 Guatemala earthquake | Ixcán | |||||
| 1976-02-04 | 1976 Guatemala earthquake | Guatemala City, Belize | 7.5 Mw | IX | 23,000 | Extreme damage, see also Motagua Fault | |
| 1976-03-12 | March 1976 Guatemala earthquake | Chimaltenango | 5.1 Mw | VII | 4 | Aftershock. | |
| 1978-07-29 | 1978 Patzún earthquake | Patzún | 4.5 Ms | 17 | |||
| 1979-10-27 | 1979 Guatemala earthquake | Chimaltenango | 6.8 Mw | 4 | |||
| 1985-10-11 | 1985 Guatemala earthquake | Uspantán | 5.0 Mw | VII | Major damage in Uspantán | ||
| 1988-11-03 | 1988 Guatemala earthquake | San Vicente Pacaya | 6.0 Mw | VI | 5 | ||
| 1991-09-11 | 1991 Guatemala earthquake | Pochuta | 5.3 Mw | VII | 25 | Major damage in San Miguel Pochuta | |
| 1993-09-10 | 1993 Chiapas earthquake | San Marcos | 7.2 Mw | 1 | Landslide/Rockslide. | ||
| 1995-12-19 | 1995 Guatemala earthquake | Tucurú | 5.3 Mw | IV | 1 | ||
| 1998-01-10 | 1998 Guatemala earthquake | Santo Domingo Suchitepéquez | 6.6 Mw | VI–VIII | Buildings damaged in Quetzaltenango and San Marcos | ||
| 2001-01-13 | January 2001 El Salvador earthquake | San Miguel | 7.7 Mw | VIII | 8 | Epicenter in San Miguel, El Salvador | |
| 2011-09-19 | 2011 Cuilapa earthquake | Cuilapa | 5.6 Mw | VI | 1 | ||
| 2012-11-07 | 2012 Guatemala earthquake | Retalhuleu | 7.4 Mw | VII | 139 | Heavy damage in San Marcos | |
| 2013-09-07 | 2013 Guatemala earthquake | Quetzaltenango | 6.7 Mw | VI | 1 | ||
| 2014-07-07 | 2014 Mexico–Guatemala earthquake | Antigua Guatemala | 6.9 Mw | VIII | 5 | ||
| 2017-06-14 | 2017 Guatemala earthquake | San Marcos | 6.9 Mw | VI | 5 | Landslides | |
| 2022-02-16 | 2022 Guatemala earthquake | Nueva Concepción, Escuintla | 6.2 Mw | VI | 3 | Several houses damaged |
MM = Intensity on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale
See also
Map all coordinates using OpenStreetMapDownload coordinates as:
References
- "Studies related to seismicity and seismic hazard in Guatemala: seismic sources, past events and monitoring". Michigan Technological University. Retrieved 2010-03-15.
- Cáceres, 2003
- INSIVUMEH. "Marco tectónico para Guatemala".
- ^ INSIVUMEH. "Principales eventos sísmicos del siglo XX en Guatemala".
- INSIVUMEH. "Marco tectónico para Guatemala".
- Moncada 2003
- "Terremoto de 1773 Guatemala". Provincia San Vicente Ferrer. Dominicos en Centroamérica. Retrieved 2010-02-27.
- ^ "Significant earthquakes in Guatemala". World data.info. Retrieved 2020-04-22.
Sources
- Cáceres Calix; José Diego (2003). Earthquake Sources and Hazard in Northern Central America (PDF). Upsala: Uppsala University. ISBN 978-91-554-5615-3.
- Marshall, Jeffrey S. (2007). "The Geomorphology and Physiographic Provinces of Central America" (PDF). In Bundschuh, Jochen; Guillermo E. Alvarado (eds.). Central America: Geology, Resources and Hazards. Taylor & Francis. pp. 1–30. ISBN 978-0-415-41647-4.
- Moncada Maya, J. Omar (5 May 2003). "En torno a la destrucción d la Ciudad de Guatemala, 1773. Una carta del Ingeniero Militar Antonio Marín". Biblio 3W. Revista Bibliográfica de Geografía y Ciencias Sociales. VIII (444). Universidad de Barcelona. ISSN 1138-9796. Retrieved 2010-02-28.
- Olvera, Carlos; Villagrán, Juan Carlos, eds. (1996). "Terremotos anteriores en Guatemala" (PDF). Diagnóstico de la prevención de desastres naturales en Guatemala con motivo del XX aniversario del terremoto del 4 de febrero de 1976 (in Spanish). Guatemala: CIG, CONE, INSIVUMEH. pp. 367–76.
- Tucker, Brian E. (1994). Mustafa Erdik; Christina N. Hwang (eds.). Issues in Urban Earthquake Risk. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7923-2914-5.
- White, Randall A. (1985). "The Guatemala earthquake of 1816 on the Chixoy-Polochic fault". Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. 75 (2). Seismological Society of America: 455–473.
- White, Randall A.; Juan Pablo Lígoria; Ines Lucía Cifuentes (2004). "Seismic history along the Middle America subduction zone along El Salvador, Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico: 1526-2000". In Rose, William Ingersol; et al. (eds.). Natural Hazards in El Salvador. Geological Society of America, Special Paper 375. pp. 379–96. ISBN 978-0-8137-2375-4.
- Seismic data of Guatemala, Retrieved on July 28, 2008
- details on Historic Earthquakes in Guatemala. Retrieved on July 28, 2008.
External links
- Instituto Nacional de Sismología, Vulcanología, Meteorología e Hidrolagía (INSIVUMEH)
- Guatemala – Earthquake information by Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
| List of earthquakes in North America | |
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| Sovereign states | |
| Dependencies and other territories | |