The 1998 Bahía de Caráquez earthquake occurred on August 4 at 13:59 local time (18:59 UTC) with a magnitude 7.2. The epicenter was located at 10 km north of Bahía de Caráquez, about 190 km NNW of

Guayaquil Guayaquil (), officially Santiago de Guayaquil, is the largest city in Ecuador and also the nation's economic capital and main port. The city is the capital (political), capital of Guayas Province and the seat of Guayaquil Canton. The city is ...

, and about 215 km W of

Quito Quito (; ), officially San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city, capital and second-largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its metropolitan area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha Province, P ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. In Bahía de Caráquez, electricity, telephone, and water services disrupted, and many buildings were damaged. It was felt strongly in Guayaquil and Quito and could be felt in much of Ecuador and in

Cali Santiago de Cali (), or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,280,522 residents estimate by National Administrative Department of Statistics, DANE in 2023. The city span ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. An 5.4

foreshock A foreshock is an earthquake that occurs before a larger seismic eventthe mainshockand is related to it in both time and space. The designation of an earthquake as ''foreshock'', ''mainshock'' or aftershock is only possible after the full sequenc ...

occurred 1 hour and 24 minutes before the main shock and hence alerted many people. The

Nazca plate The Nazca plate or Nasca plate, named after the Nazca region of southern Peru, is an oceanic list of tectonic plates, tectonic plate in the eastern Pacific Ocean basin off the west coast of South America. The ongoing subduction, along the Peru– ...

is subducting beneath the

South American plate The South American plate is a major tectonic plate which includes the continent of South America as well as a sizable region of the Atlantic Ocean seabed extending eastward to the African plate, with which it forms the southern part of the Mid ...

near the Ecuadorian coast. This earthquake was a shallow thrust earthquake in this subduction zone. Since March 1997, Wawa Pichincha, 12 km to the west of Quito, began a period of unrest. Since May 1998, a seismic swarm occurred at Wawa Pichincha. Three days after the Bahía de Caráquez earthquake, on August 7, 1998, a moderate

phreatic eruption A phreatic eruption, also called a phreatic explosion, ultravulcanian eruption or steam-blast eruption, occurs when magma heats ground water or surface water. The extreme temperature of the magma (anywhere from ) causes near-instantaneous evap ...

occurred in Wawa Pichincha. Wawa Pichincha remained active in 1999, and in 2000 its activities became more moderate.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:1998 Bahia de Caraquez earthquake Bahia De Caraquez Earthquake, 1998 Bahia De Caraquez Earthquake, 1998 Earthquakes in Ecuador 1998 disasters in Ecuador August 1998 in South America

See also

References

External links