Bolivia earthquakes

M5.5 earthquake 165 km WSW of Colchani, Bolivia

A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck 165 km WSW of Colchani, Bolivia on Wed, Aug 29, 2007, 12:18 PM GMT-4 (16:18 UTC), 134 km (83 mi) below the surface.

A larger quake followed: M5.6 151 km ESE of Iquique, Chile. This one was a foreshock.

Pozo Almonte forecast More in Bolivia

Map

Where this earthquake was located, with the others nearby. Select one for its page.

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The earthquake

Magnitude: 5.5 (Mwc, centroid moment), moderate
Magnitude from: USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Local time: Wed, Aug 29, 2007, 12:18 PM GMT-4
UTC: 2007-08-29 16:18:10 UTC
Depth: 134.2 km (83.4 mi), intermediate-depth
Epicenter: 20.948° S, 68.360° W
Region: Bolivia
Felt reports: 3
Tsunami flag: No
Status: Reviewed by a seismologist

Magnitude estimates

Different scales measure different things and differ by a few tenths. The USGS marks one as preferred, and it is the one this page uses.

Mag.	Scale	Computed by	Notes
5.5	Mwc, centroid moment	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Preferred · Reviewed
5.51	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.1
5.5	Mwc, centroid moment	Global CMT project	Preliminary

What happened

The USGS’s account of the effects of this earthquake.

Felt (III) at Alto Hospicio, Calama, Camina, Huara, Iquique, Maria Elena, Mejillones, Pica, Pozo Almonte and Tocopilla; (II) at Arica and Sierra Gorda, Chile.

From the USGS event page for usp000fkym. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.

Did you feel it?

3 people reported to the USGS what they felt; the strongest reported shaking was III, weak shaking.

Fault motion and ground failure

How the rock slipped, from the moment tensor, and the USGS estimate of landslides and liquefaction.

Faulting: Normal
Nodal plane 1: Strike 168°, dip 6°, rake -70°
Nodal plane 2: Strike 328°, dip 85°, rake -92°

How well it is located

Reviewed by a seismologist.

Depth from: CONSTRAINED_BY_DEPTH_PHASES
Station coverage gap: 52°
Stations used: 256

Nearest places

Distance and direction from each place to the epicenter, with its forecast.

Nearby

Within 100 km, magnitude 2.5 and up: 11 in the 60 days after this one and 9 in the 30 days before it.

After

Before

Earthquakes today Bolivia earthquakes Live radar here

Sources

From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event usp000fkym (also filed as us2007gqbd, gcmtc200708291618a, gcmt20070829161810, iscgem12815973). Read Thu, Oct 1, 2026, 9:27 AM UTC.