After two powerful earthquakes in the last two months, in Colombia and Venezuela, which left thousands dead and injured, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake shook the Andean region of Ayacucho, in southern Peru, this Thursday, with no personal or material damage reported so far. The tremor was powerful and was felt even in the streets of the capital Lima, more than 600 kilometers away.
The Geophysical Institute of Peru has detailed that the epicenter of the earthquake, which was recorded at 1:00 p.m. local time (8:00 p.m. peninsular time), was located 35 kilometers from Coracora, a rural town in the province of Parinacochas, belonging to the department of Ayacucho.
The earthquake occurred at a depth of 108 kilometers, which, according to Hernando Tavera, director of the IGP, amplified its perception and made it possible for it to be noticed in coastal towns such as Lima or Ica and Andean cities such as Abancay, Cuzco or Arequipa, near the border with Chile.
The IGP indicated that the population had taken to the streets in fear but that there was no news of serious effects, despite the fact that Luis Enrique Vásquez Guerrero, director of the National Institute of Civil Defense of Peru, stressed that the earthquake hit an area where there are "small rural communities with deficient infrastructure." Homes in Andean communities are generally of rudimentary structure, built with adobe blocks.
“The information that has been collected so far is that the population took to the streets worried, but there is no impact,” Hernando Tavera assured radio station RPP.
The United States Geological Survey offered a different measurement of the earthquake, lowering it to 6.7 in intensity and placing it 66.7 kilometers underground.
This is the fourth earthquake of magnitude greater than 7 to affect the Andes mountain range in the last two months. The first two were consecutive, of 7.2 and 7.5, and devastated the coastal area near Caracas on June 24, causing more than 6,400 deaths. The third occurred 11 days ago, on August 10, in Colombia, with an intensity of 7.4 and epicenter in the Chocó region, which mainly affected the cities of Pereira and Cali, leaving a total of 319 dead and more than 260 missing.
Earthquakes are frequent in Peru, which is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of high seismic activity that accounts for 80% of the world's seismic activity. In 2007, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake in a province in the Ica region left almost 600 dead.
Almost a month ago, six people died and dozens were injured after a 5.1 magnitude earthquake, also in a region in the center of the country, with a depth of 24 kilometers.
Ayacucho, where a key battle was fought in 1824 for the advance of the South American independence movements, is an agricultural area that markets grains from the Andes and is developing a tourist industry after recovering from the years of violence by the Marxist Shining Path guerrilla, which was born in that region.
