Nature
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A magnitude 6.9 quake has struck the Southern Peruvian region of Puno, just 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Bolivian border. The powerful quake was a deep one, originating 240 km (149 miles) deep according to the Instituto Geofísico del Perú. Given its impressive depth, it was felt far afield beyond the specific region of Peru, into Bolivia and Chile.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimated a slightly stronger quake at 7.2 and slightly shallower. Despite the power of this event, it appears to have not caused major damage or fatalities currently. No tsunami warning has been issued. Despite the size, people have reported varying intensities on the ground.
“The different perception of the duration of the ground shaking depends on the response of the soils: being compact, the waves are attenuated; being heterogeneous, the waves are amplified, which allows the shaking of the ground to be perceived with greater intensity and duration. People perceive the shaking of the ground as a result of the passage of seismic waves generated by the earthquake,” Hernando Tavera, director of the IGP said in a statement.
The quake, which struck the region at 7:02 am local time, originated deep as the Nazca Plate sinks underneath the South American plate. Over millions of years, this has created the Andes and extremely powerful earthquakes.
