Seismicity and tectonics

Abstract

The Southern Peru earthquake of 23 June 2001 resulted from thrust faulting on the boundary between the Nazca and South American plates. In terms of seismic moment release, the Mw (HRV) 8,4 earthquake was arguably the largest worldwide since 1965. The earthquake occurred in a 1000 km long seismic gap that previously ruptured in 1868 and 1877, and which was identified prior to 2001 as having high potential for large earthquake. The 23 june 2001 earthquake ruptured substantially less than half of the pre-2001 gap.