Advertisement

Peru hit by 6.8 earthquake

Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.


Peru was hit by a magnitude 6.8 earthquake Wednesday, but there were no damages or injuries, according to news reports. The nation suffered an 8.0 earthquake in 2007 that killed nearly 500 people, and four years later residents are still working to recover from that disaster.

In Wednesday’s quake, the ground shook ‘like a hammock,’ one local woman told the Associated Press, but it occurred in a sparsely populated jungle area north of the city of Pucallpa and near the border with Brazil. Some shaking was reportedly felt in Lima, the nation’s capital.

Advertisement

Earlier this month, Peru’s president, Ollanta Humala, visited Pisco, Peru, which was devastated by the 2007 earthquake, to encourage the process of rebuilding.

Wednesday’s earthquake, which occurred at 12:46 p.m. local time (10:46 a.m. PDT, 1:46 p.m. EDT), was very deep, the U.S. Geological Survey said, and deeper quakes are less likely to cause damage.

Earthquakes have been in the news lately in the U.S. with the 5.8 temblor in Virginia on Tuesday, which shook up New Yorkers unaccustomed to the ground shifting. There also was a 5.3 quake in Colorado, the strongest in that area in decades.

RELATED

Death toll nears 500 in Peru earthquake

2007 quake damages numerous monuments, landmarks in Peru

Advertisement

5.9 earthquake hits Virginia, jolts New York and the Carolinas

-- Amy Hubbard

Advertisement