Earthquake

An earthquake struck Peru close to the Brazilian border on Wednesday, August 24 at 12 :46 PM (local time). This was a massive deep earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.0. It was felt on a wide scale due to its depth of 145.1 km (90 miles). Nearby countries like Ecuador also felt the shaking. It occurred beneath the Earth’s surface as a result of normal faulting within the subducting Nazca slab. It struck near the boundary between the Nazca and South America plates, as the Nazca plate sunk towards the northeast beneath the South American continent. The Nazca plate moved approximately east-northeast with respect to South America at a rate of 67 mm/yr. The stresses generating this earthquake resulted from the bending of the plate as it transitioned from a sub-horizontal region southwest of the epicenter to sink at steeper dips towards the mantle transition zone. The impacts of  this earthquake included telephone and power lines being down near the epicenter area where the shaking was more severe (an economic affect for businesses), twenty injuries reported (biosphere), a house and building collapsed (infrastructure), and it had caused landslides in some areas (lithosphere).