May 26, 2022 Earthquake: Puno, Peru

Reference #13456:

At least 31 homes, 11 buildings and a bridge damaged in Puno. One building damaged in Arequipa and in Ayachuco. Landslides occurred in the Arequipa- Camana area.

Nunoa, Puno, Peru - CDI: 7; Ayaviri, Puno, Peru - CDI: 7; Azangaro, Puno, Peru - CDI: 7; Putina, Puno, Peru - CDI: 6; Ambo, Huánuco, Peru - CDI: 5

Tectonic Summary

The May 26, 2022, M 7.2 Peru earthquake near Lake Titicaca, occurred as the result of oblique faulting at an intermediate depth, approximately 220 km beneath southeastern Peru within the lithosphere of the subducted Nazca plate. Focal mechanism solutions indicate that rupture occurred on either a steeply dipping fault striking to the west, or on a moderately dipping fault striking to the south. At the location of the earthquake, the oceanic Nazca plate moves east-northeast relative to the South America plate at a rate of about 71 mm/yr, subducting at the Peru-Chile Trench west of the Peruvian coast and sinking into the mantle beneath South America.

Earthquakes with focal depths between 70 and 300 km, like this event, are commonly termed “intermediate-depth” earthquakes. Intermediate-depth earthquakes typically cause less damage on the ground surface above their foci than is the case with similar-magnitude shallow-focus earthquakes, but large intermediate-depth earthquakes may be felt at great distance from their epicenters. “Deep-focus” earthquakes, those with focal depths greater than 300 km, also occur in the subducted Nazca plate farther east from the Peru-Chile Trench, beneath western Brazil and central Argentina. Earthquakes have been located to depths of about 650 km in this region.

The Peru-Chile Trench is an area that hosts large earthquakes quite regularly. Within 500 km of the May 26th earthquake, there have been 11 other intermediate depth earthquakes with magnitudes of 6.5 over the preceding century. Today’s earthquake was the largest of these. An M7.0 earthquake in very similar location occurred on March 3, 2019.

Reference #13237, 13239:

intensity III-IV Ayaviri. 2 houses destroyed, 87 houses impacted.