June 23 2001 Peru Earthquake
In the afternoon of june 23 2001 a magnitude 84 earthquake struck the offshore area of peru immediately west of the city of arequipa.
June 23 2001 peru earthquake. The quake affected the peruvian regions of arequipa moquegua and tacna. The earthquake a complex event occurred at the interface between the nazca and south american tectonic plates. The tsunami magnitude for this earthquake calculated by katsuyuki abe earthquake research institute is mt81.
This segment of the peru trench last ruptured in an earthquake in 1868 and was identified as a seismic gap by mccann et al. Figure 1 southern peru earthquake and associated seismicity june 23 july 23 2001. The june 23 2001 earthquake occurred in the western part of an active seismic belt that lies between the andean mountain block and the peru chile trench.
This seismic region has been responsible for a number of major earthquakes within recorded history and local destructive tsunamis. An earthquake with a magnitude of 84 occurred near the coast of southern peru at 333 pm local time on june 23 2001. In addition to the great 2001 event earthquakes occurred along the southern peru trench on 24 august 1942 3 october 1974 and 12 november 1996.
The plate boundary between the south american plate and the subducting nazca plate along the peru coast has been the site of large destructive earthquakes for many centuries including the recent june 23 2001 mw 84 event. On june 23 2001 a mw84 earthquake struck near the coast of peru 110 miles 175 km west of arequipa or about 370 miles 595 km southeast of lima. 22 people were killed in the municipality and 62 were reported missing.
The tsunami generated by the june 23 2001 peru earthquake caused significant damage to a 20 km long stretch of coastline in the municipality of camana southern peru. Nishenko estimated a very high but uncertain seismic potential for the segment. It occurred at the boundary between the nazca and south american tectonic plates in an area that has a history of very large earthquakes.
Boundaries of the 1868 rupture are as proposed by dorbath et al. The 2001 southern peru earthquake occurred at 203315 utc on june 23 with a moment magnitude of 84 and a maximum mercalli intensity of viii. The recent june 23 2001 m w 84 earthquake was the largest earthquake to occur worldwide in the past 25 years.
Offshore epicenters extending from the main shock epicenter southeast to ilo probably occurred on or near the main shock rupture surface. Its epicenter was a little over one hundred miles offshore and because of its magnitude it was the largest earthquake worldwide for over thirty five years. A tsunami was generated by this earthquake that killed at least 20 people in the camana chala region.