Powerful Quake Shakes Eastern Peru
A powerful but deep 7.0-magnitude earthquake shook eastern Peru near the Brazilian border on Wednesday and was felt more than 480 kilometers away in the Andean nation's capital Lima.
Seismologists from the U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter of the quake, which occurred at 1746 GMT, was 82 kilometers south of Puccalpa, a city isolated by mountains and the Amazon rainforest.
There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties and the U.S. government's Pacific warning center said no destructive tsunami was created after the quake, which was deep at 145 kilometers underground.
On August 15, 2007, an earthquake of magnitude 7.9 devastated the province of Ica, just south of Lima, killing some 600 people and causing extensive damage to area buildings and infrastructure.
In 2009, more than 140 earthquakes with magnitudes of 4.0 and above were felt in Peru, located in a region that geologists call the Pacific Ring of Fire due to its intense seismic activity.
Source: Agence France Presse
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