Earthquake Summary Poster

Poster of the Colombia Earthquake of 15 November 2004 - Magnitude 7.2

Larger Image • PDF version

The posters may be downloaded for viewing or for printing on a color plotter. Adobe PDF (.pdf) format files are provided. Adobe Acrobat 6.0 or higher is required for viewing the PDF file on a computer monitor and for printing the PDF map graphic. IMPORTANT: The PDF map graphic was produced using TrueType fonts; change the following setting to:
Page(Print)Setup<Properties<Layout<Advanced<Graphic<TrueTypeFont<DownloadAsSoftFont

Attention MAC users: If you have problems viewing the pdf files, please download the pdf file and view it in the lastest verion of Adobe Acrobat.

DISCUSSION The earthquake occurred near the boundary of the Nazca and South American plates. In this region, the Nazca plate is moving easterly with respect to the South American plate with a velocity of about 70 mm/year and subducting beneath it. The location and focal mechanism of the earthquake are consistent with the shock's occurring on the thrust interface between the plates. The Mw = 7.2 earthquake of November 11, 1991 had a very similar location and focal-mechanism; the 1991 shock killed two people.