A significant seismic event occurred in southern Peru near the settlement of Aniso in the Ayacucho region on Thursday, according to reports from local officials and international monitoring agencies. The earthquake registered a magnitude of 6.7 according to the US Geological Survey, though Peru’s Geophysical Institute recorded a slightly higher reading of 7.2. The event struck at a depth of approximately 62 miles beneath the surface, with its epicenter located roughly 19 miles northwest of Aniso in a mountainous area of the Andes.
Three individuals sustained injuries as a result of the earthquake, though officials stated the injuries were not severe. The infrastructure damage proved substantial, with Peru’s defence minister Rafael Belaunde reporting that 22 residential structures and six schools sustained damage. Additional harm was documented at healthcare facilities, with 10 clinics in the Ayacucho region and two in the adjacent Cusco region affected, though their operations continued uninterrupted. Power supply disruptions affected approximately 9,000 properties in the affected areas.
The tremors from the earthquake were felt across extensive portions of the country, reaching the capital city of Lima, which lies roughly 300 miles away from the epicenter. This seismic event follows a pattern of significant earthquake activity that has impacted the broader South American region in recent months. Peru’s geographical position along the boundary where the Nazca and South American tectonic plates meet makes seismic occurrences relatively frequent in the nation. The earthquake on Thursday represented the latest in a series of major seismic events affecting South America, following a magnitude 7.4 earthquake in Colombia earlier in the month that resulted in more than 300 fatalities, and dual earthquakes in Venezuela in June that caused thousands of deaths.
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
Article summary produced by Claude AI