Peru.-A strong earthquake of magnitude 7.5 shook Peru this Sunday, causing alarm among the population, but without causing casualties but damage property in homes, according to the first reports released by Civil Defense. The Simo was adjusted from 8.3 to 7.5. The epicenter of the earthquake, whose initial magnitude of 7.2 was revised upward by the Geophysical Institute of Peru (IGP), was located 70 kilometers southeast of Lagunas, in the north of the country, at a depth of 141 kilometers. It occurred at 02:41 hours (07:41 GMT), according to the IGP. Lagunas is a district of the province of Alto Amazonas, in the region of Loreto. Its population is 12,000 inhabitants. Generally, the greater the depth of the minor quake is the impact or damage it causes to the surface. However, the shock wave results in these cases more widening, which explains that it has felt in Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela. In Peru, besides Loreto, the earthquake was felt in the regions of the north and the center of La Libertad, Tumbes, Piura, Lambayeque, San Martín and Cajamarca, as well as in the capital of the country.
The quake lasted 127 seconds and in the capital Lima forced to leave the population of their houses in spite of the dawn and the rain that fell at that time. Geologist Patricio Valderrama, of the Center for Monitoring and Prevention of disasters, said that “the north of Peru does not feel an earthquake like this since the great earthquake of 1970”, in allusion to the terrible earthquake of 7.9 degrees that devastated the region of Ancash leaving more than 70,000 dead. The Ministry of the Interior reported in its Twitter account that no casualties were reported so far, but collapses of some homes. Yurimaguas, the city closest to the epicenter, was one of the areas with material damage, according to the first information on television. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) registers in its seismographs a magnitude of 8.0. Peruvian President Martín Vizcarra wrote in his Twitter account that authorities evaluate the affected areas.
“To all our citizens, I ask you to remain calm. The emergency Center is monitoring and evaluating the situation, “said the president.
The mayor of Lagunas, Arri Pezo, said that the population does not want to enter their homes for fear of new aftershocks of the strong earthquake. ” You couldn’t walk at the time of the quake, things were falling. We cannot verify if we have damage because there is no electric power, “Pezo said to the RPP radio. The mayor of Yurimaguas, Hugo Araujo, reported the collapse of several old houses.
“There are many old houses that have been collapsed (built from Adobe) by this strong earthquake,” explained Araujo.
The director of the Geophysical Institute of Peru, Hernando Tavera, said that aftershocks are not frequent because of the depth of the epicentre of the earthquake. “It’s almost minimal that possibility,” said the scientist. Peru is, like its neighbors of the South American Pacific Chile and Ecuador, in a very seismic region. On January 24th another earthquake, of 6.0 degrees magnitude, shook the central coast of Peru causing minor damages and six wounded in localities close to the centenarian lines of Nazca (south coast).
The shock wave of the earthquake recorded in the Peruvian jungle also extended to neighboring Ecuador, where power cuts were reported in some localities of the Amazon. The earthquake was also felt in the coastal Guayaquil, on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. ” We have conducted the respective monitoring in each city to raise information and damage report after the earthquake, so far we have no news, “wrote the vice president of Ecuador Otto Sonnenholzner in his Twitter network account. The President of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, who is in Lima to attend a summit of the Andean Community this Sunday, also indicated by Twitter to be aware of the impact of the earthquake in his country. “I am aware of the information about the strong quake recorded this morning. The Vice-President @ottosonnenh has already communicated with the prefect of Zamora Chinchipe. Power cuts have been reported in Yantzaza. Compatriots, it is important to be informed by official channels, “tweeted President Moreno. Reports from the Peruvian press noted that the quake was also felt in regions of Colombia and Venezuela.
Original source in Spanish
