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The subduction of the Nazca plate below the South American plate along the Chile-Peru Trench is associated with numerous earthquakes. Several of these earthquakes are notable for their size, associated tsunamis, and landslides. 1570 Concepcion earthquake: M w ~8.3; 1687 Peru earthquake: M w ~8.7; 1730 Valparaíso earthquake M s ~8.7
The oceanic Nazca plate subducts beneath the continental South American plate at the Peru–Chile Trench. Just north of the Nazca plate, the oceanic Cocos plate subducts under the Caribbean plate and forms the Middle America Trench. Oceanic crust of the South American plate subducts under the Caribbean plate in the Lesser Antilles subduction zone.
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami was triggered by a megathrust earthquake along the convergent boundary of the Indian plate and Burma microplate and killed over 200,000 people. The 2011 tsunami off the coast of Japan , which caused 16,000 deaths and did US$360 billion in damage, was caused by a magnitude 9 megathrust earthquake ...
Plate tectonics (from Latin tectonicus, from Ancient Greek τεκτονικός (tektonikós) ' pertaining to building ') [1] is the scientific theory that the Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago.
The Caribbean plate is a mostly oceanic tectonic plate underlying Central America and the Caribbean Sea off the northern coast of South America. Roughly 3.2 million square kilometres (1.2 million square miles) in area, the Caribbean plate borders the North American plate , the South American plate , the Nazca plate and the Cocos plate .
Earthquakes are common on the West Coast, with multiple plate boundaries like the San Andreas fault making geologic activity more likely. They are rarer on the East Coast, but they do happen .
The South American plate is a major tectonic plate which includes the continent of South America as well as a sizable region of the Atlantic Ocean seabed extending eastward to the African plate, with which it forms the southern part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
The earthquake occurred along the boundary between the Malpelo plate, formerly considered the northeastern part of the Nazca plate, and the North Andes plate.The earthquake is likely to be a result of thrust-faulting, caused by the subduction of the Coiba, Malpelo and Nazca plates beneath the North Andes and South American plates.