From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

1687 Peru earthquake

Seismic event

Field	Value
title	1687 Peru earthquake
pre-1900	yes
local-date
map2	{{Location map	Peru
AlternativeMap	Peru physical map.svg
lat	-15.12
long	-75.54
mark	Bullseye1.png
marksize	40
position	top
width	250
float	right
relief	yes}}
magnitude	8.7 Mw
location
countries affected	Peru
tsunami	Yes
casualties	5,000

|pre-1900 = yes |local-date= The 1687 Peru earthquake occurred at 11:30 UTC on 20 October 1687. It had an estimated magnitude of 8.4–8.7 and caused severe damage to Lima, Callao and Ica. It triggered a tsunami and overall, about 5,000 people died.

Tectonic setting

The earthquake occurred along the boundary between the Nazca plate and the South American plate. The earthquake is likely to be a result of thrust faulting, caused by the subduction of the Nazca plate beneath the South American plate.

The coastal parts of Peru and Chile have a history of great megathrust earthquakes originating from this plate boundary, such as the 1960 Valdivia earthquake.

Damage

The port of Pisco was completely destroyed by the tsunami, with at least three ships being swept over the remains of the town.

Characteristics

The earthquake was probably followed by another large event further to the south. A magnitude of 8.7 has been estimated from tsunami runup heights and by comparison with the earthquake of 1974.

The tsunami was reported in Japan where it produced runups of tens of metres.

Economic impact

Chile's history of exporting cereals to Peru dates back to the 1687 earthquake which coincided with both an earthquake with a stem rust epidemic in Peru. Given that Chilean soil and climatic conditions were better for cereal production than those of Peru and Chilean wheat was cheaper and of better quality than Peruvian wheat the 1687 events have been deemed only a detonant factor for exports to start.

In the 16th and 17th century, the principal wine growing area of the Americas was in the central and southern coast of Peru. In Peru, the largest wine-making centre was in the area of Ica and Pisco. The earthquake destroyed wine cellars and mud containers used for wine storage. This event marked a permanent decline in Peruvian winemaking.

References

Sources

{{cite journal
{{citation
{{cite journal | doi-access= free
{{cite journal | doi-access= free
{{cite journal | doi-access= free
{{cite journal
{{citation

References

IISEE. "Catalog of Damaging Earthquakes in the World (Through 2007)".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

megathrust-earthquakes-in-peru 17th-century-tsunamis 1687-disasters 1680s-earthquakes 1687-in-south-america

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 1687 Peru earthquake — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report