21st Century Earthquakes

Earthquake 23rd of June 2001 Arequipa / Moquegua / Tacna

At 3.33 pm an 8.4 earthquake rattled the south of Peru. The quake affected the Peruvian regions of Arequipa, Moquegua and Tacna. It was the most devastating earthquake in Peru since the catastrophic 1970 Ancash earthquake.

Earthquake 26th of September 2005 Northern Peru / Moyabamba

Earthquake 15th of August 2007 Ica & Pisco

Two powerful earthquakes shock the area south of Lima at 06.40 pm and 06.42 pm. The epicenters were located 150 km south of Lima. The magnitude 7.9 and 8.2 tremors overlapped and lasted together nearly two minutes. The Ica region was hit hardest, with 70% of the city of Pisco leveled to the ground, the city of Ica, Chincha and villages in the area badly damaged. Churches, public buildings and residences collapsed and with it the whole infrastructure of the region. Paracas was flooded by a tsunami. The Pan Americana Sur Highway was interrupted at many places due to huge cracks and destroyed bridges which made it difficult to reach the most hit areas. Until today the area hasn't recovered completely.

And even in Lima the ground shaking was frightening. Office workers and residents of sky scrapers fled the buildings, panicking people rushed to more or less safe places on the streets, traffic came to a complete standstill, power lines were cut, landlines and cell phones didn't work for hours. But luckily Lima with its nearly 8,000,000 inhabitants was spared a real disaster. Only a handful of old rundown houses collapsed, a moderate number of buildings had cracks, many windows were shattered, here and there the streets had some new holes or small cracks.