Chile earthquakes

M6.7 earthquake 63 km WNW of Iquique, Chile

A magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck 63 km WNW of Iquique, Chile on Sun, Mar 16, 2014, 6:16 PM GMT-3 (21:16 UTC), 20 km (12 mi) below the surface.

A larger quake followed: M8.2 93 km NW of Iquique, Chile. This one was a foreshock.

Iquique forecast More in Chile

Map

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

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The earthquake

Magnitude: 6.7 (Mww, W-phase moment), strong
Magnitude from: USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Local time: Sun, Mar 16, 2014, 6:16 PM GMT-3
UTC: 2014-03-16 21:16:29 UTC
Depth: 20.0 km (12.4 mi), shallow
Epicenter: 19.981° S, 70.702° W
Region: Chile
Felt reports: 43
Strongest shaking: VII, very strong shaking
PAGER alert: Green
Tsunami flag: Yes: a large quake in an oceanic region
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
6.7	Mww, W-phase moment	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Preferred · Reviewed
6.67	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.1
7.0	Mi	NOAA Pacific Tsunami Warning Center	Reviewed · 5 stations
6.7	Mwc, centroid moment	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Moment tensor · Reviewed
6.5	Mwb, body-wave moment	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Moment tensor · Reviewed

Deaths and damage

From NOAA NCEI’s Significant Earthquake Database (record 10075), matched to this event by time and place.

Damage: Limited (under about $1 million)

Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.

NOAA’s full record of this earthquake The tsunami it caused

Tsunami

The USGS flags a quake this large in an oceanic region. The flag does not mean a tsunami happened; the tsunami warning centers decide that, and their messages are below when they issued any.

Current tsunami warnings: tsunami.gov. Warnings in force in the US also appear on our alerts pages.

Shaking

The USGS ShakeMap: shaking estimated from seismic stations and the quake’s size, on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale.

Strongest estimated: VII, very strong shaking
Peak ground acceleration: 13.6% of gravity
Peak ground velocity: 2.8 cm/s
Map: Automatic

USGS ShakeMap: estimated shaking intensity around the epicenter — Estimated shaking intensity. Map: USGS ShakeMap.

Did you feel it?

43 people reported to the USGS what they felt; the strongest reported shaking was VII, very strong shaking.

Estimated impact

The USGS PAGER system estimates deaths and economic losses from the shaking and the population and buildings exposed to it.

Alert level: Green: little or no damage or loss of life expected

Fault motion and ground failure

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

Faulting: Reverse (thrust)
Moment magnitude: 6.7 Mww
Nodal plane 1: Strike 126°, dip 74°, rake 98°
Nodal plane 2: Strike 277°, dip 18°, rake 63°

How well it is located

Reviewed by a seismologist.

Depth from: OPERATOR_ASSIGNED
Station coverage gap: 44°
Stations used: 151

Nearest places

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

Nearby

Within 100 km, magnitude 3.7 and up: at least 200 in the 60 days after this one and 7 in the 30 days before it.

After

The first 60 of at least 200.

Before

Earthquakes today Chile earthquakes Live radar here

Sources

From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event usc000ndnj (also filed as pt14075001, at00n2jsh8, iscgem604162227, atlas20140316211629). Read Sat, Oct 3, 2026, 1:20 PM UTC.