June 13, 2007 Earthquake: Guatemala City
A magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck Guatemala City on June 13, 2007 at 19:29:40 UTC, 23 km below the surface.
Map
Where it struck, with the other significant earthquakes within 200 km. Circles are sized and colored by magnitude; select one for its page.
The earthquake
- Date
- June 13, 2007
- Time
- 19:29:40 UTC
- Place
- Guatemala City
- Magnitude
- 6.7 (Mw)
- Magnitude scales
- Mw 6.7 · Ms 6.5 · mb 5.9
- Focal depth
- 23 km (14 mi)
- Tsunami
- None recorded
- Epicenter
- 13.554° N, 90.618° W
- Country
- Guatemala
- Region
- Central America
- USGS record
- The USGS’s page for this earthquake
Mw: moment magnitude, based on the slip on the fault and the area that slipped. Ms: surface-wave magnitude. mb: body-wave (P-wave) magnitude. NCEI’s headline magnitude is the best of these for the earthquake.
The toll
- Damage
- Limited (under about $1 million)
- Houses destroyed
- Some (about 51 to 100)
- Houses damaged
- Some (about 51 to 100)
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.
What happened
The USGS’s account of the effects of this earthquake.
Some houses damaged in the Guatemala City area. Felt (VI) at Escuintla and San Jose; (V) at Mixco; (IV) at Antigua Guatemala, Palencia, Panajachel, Petapa, Quetzaltenango, Santa Catarina Pinula and Villa Nueva. Felt at Amatitlan, Chimaltenango, Chiquimulilla, Coban, El Palmar, Fraijanes, Iztapa, Jalapa, Jocotenango, La Esperanza, Mazatenango, Patzun, Retalhuleu, Salcaja, San Antonio Palopo, San Jose Pinula, San Lucas Sacatepequez, Sanarate, Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa, Santiago Atitlan, Santiago Sacatepequez, Totonicapan, and Villa Canales. Landslides occurred at Escuintla. Felt (V) at Antiguo Cuscatlan and Nueva San Salvador; (IV) at San Salvador, Soyapango, Tonacatepeque and Zaragoza, El Salvador. Felt at Acajutla, Ahuachapan, Apopa, Ilopango, La Libertad, Mejicanos, Nuevo Cuscatlan, Olocuilta, Opico, San Luis, Santa Rosa de Lima, Santo Tomas, El Salvador. Also felt at Arriaga and Tapachula, Mexico; Masaya, Nicaragua; Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
From the USGS event page for usp000fdyv. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.
Magnitude estimates
The magnitudes the USGS catalog lists for this earthquake, by scale and by who computed them. NCEI’s own scales are in the table above.
| Mag. | Scale | Computed by | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.7 | Mwc, centroid moment | USGS National Earthquake Information Center | Preferred · Reviewed |
| 6.68 | Mw, moment | ISC-GEM global catalog | Final · ±0.1 |
| 6.7 | Mwc, centroid moment | Global CMT project | Preliminary |
| 5.87 | Me, energy | Choy, USGS energy magnitude | Reviewed |
| 6.7 | Mww, W-phase moment | Duputel, W-phase inversion | Preliminary |
What the record says
NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.
Some houses damaged in the Guatemala City area. Felt (VI) at Escuintla and San Jose; (V) at Mixco; (IV) at Antigua Guatemala, Palencia, Panajachel, Petapa, Quetzaltenango and Santa Catarina Pinula. Felt at Amatitlan, Chimaltenango,
Chiquimulilla, Coban, El Palmar, Fraijanes, Iztapa,
Jalapa, Jocotenango, La Esperanza, Mazatenango, Patzun, Retalhuleu, Salcaja, San Antonio Palopo, San Lucas Sacatepequez, Sanarate, Santiago Atitlan, Santiago Sacatepequez, Totonicapan, Villa Canales and Villa Nueva. Landslides occurred at Escuintla. Felt (V) at Antiguo Cuscatlan and Nueva San Salvador; (IV) at San Salvador, Soyapango and Zaragoza, El Salvador. Felt at Acajutla, Ahuachapan, Apopa, Ilopango, La Libertad, Mejicanos, Nuevo Cuscatlan, Olocuilta, Opico, Santa Rosa de Lima, Santo Tomas and Tonacatepeque, El Salvador. Also felt at Arriaga and
Tapachula, Mexico; Managua and Masaya, Nicaragua;
Tegucigalpa, Honduras. (reference #1053)
Sources NCEI cites
The publications NCEI lists for this record. The numbers match the “reference #” notes in its account above.
- #1053 National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) (1971 to 2013). Preliminary Determination of Epicenters (PDE), a weekly and monthly publication, National Earthquake Information Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Golden, Colorado, 1971 to 2013.
Other significant earthquakes nearby
Within 200 km, the deadliest first.
- December 26, 1917, Guatemala City
- April 19, 1902, Quezaltenango, San Marcos, Guatemala
- October 10, 1986, San Salvador, El Salvador
- April 14, 1854, San Salvador, El Salvador
- March 4, 1873, Santa Tomas, San Vicente, El Salvador
- June 3, 1773, St. Jago, Guatemala
- February 13, 2001, San Juan Tepezontes-San Vicente-Cojutep, El Salvador
- September 3, 1874, Antigua,chimaltenango,amatitlan, Guatemala
- April 11, 1873, Salvador,san Vicente, El Salvador
- February 26, 1902, El Salvador-Guatemala
- May 3, 1965, San Marcos, El Salvador
- July 29, 1773, Antigua, Guatemala
- April 20, 1765, Chiquimula, El Salvador, Guatemala
- November 7, 2012, San Marcos, San Cristobal Cochu, Guatemala
- June 19, 1982, San Salvador, Guatemala, El Salvador
More
Significant earthquakes of 2007The 2000sEvery quake the USGS located in 2007Recent earthquakes near hereThis day in weather history
Sources
Significant earthquakes from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-10-01. NCEI earthquake 7534. The written accounts and the magnitude estimates are from the USGS earthquake catalog, event usp000fdyv, matched to this record by time, place and magnitude.