The NSF-funded Structural Extreme Events Reconnaissance (StEER) Network has issued a Virtual Assessment Structural Team (VAST) Report for the May 26, 2019, M8.0 Lagunas Peru Earthquake.
The earthquake occurred as the result of an intermediate-depth normal faulting rupture of the Nazca plate. Perú is located within the subduction zone of the Nazca plate which subducts in an eastern downward motion relative to the South America plate at a velocity of approximately 7 cm/yr (about 2.7 inch/yr). Intermediate-depth subduction events are relatively common in northern Perú and western South America. They typically cause less damage on the ground surface above their foci than similar-magnitude shallow-focus earthquakes, but large intermediate-depth earthquakes may be felt at great distance from their epicenters (USGS, 2019).
For the community of earthquake engineering researchers and practitioners, the multidisciplinary reconnaissance information available right after the event provides an important opportunity to learn from this earthquake, both technically and also from a policy and decision-making perspective. As such, this report gathers some publicly-available information, by (i) providing a summary of the origin of the event and its main seismological features, (ii); presenting a summary of ground motions recorded in two countries; and (iii) summarizing the preliminary reports of damage. This Virtual Assessment Structural Team (VAST) Report is a product of StEER to support those seeking to learn from this seismic event and to inform possible future Field Assessment Structural Teams (FAST).
Lead author: Eduardo Miranda, Stanford University
Co-authors, in alphabetical order:
- Andrés Acosta, Stanford University
- Luis Ceferino, Stanford University
- Héctor Dávalos, Universidad Panamericana, México
- Francisco Galvis, Stanford University
- Selim Gunay, University of California, Berkeley
- Pablo Heresi, Stanford University
- Jorge Macedo, Georgia Institute of Technology
- Sebastián Miranda, PUC, Chile
- José M. Ramos, Universidad Michoacana San Nicolás Hidalgo, México
- Pedro Rojas, ESPOL and UCSG, Ecuador
- Jorge Ruiz-García, Universidad Michoacana San Nicolás Hidalgo, México
- Xavier Vera, GeoEstudios and UCSG, Ecuador
Access the report from this link: https://aub.ie/steer_EQ_lagunaperu