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The 1991 Guatemala earthquake occurred on September 18 at 3:48 a.m. local time. The epicenter was 60 miles southwest of Guatemala City. The shock was assigned a magnitude of 5.3 on the Richter scale, ^[1] later assigned with a magnitude of 6.2. ^[2] As a result of the earthquake, 25 deaths and 200 injuries were recorded. ^[3]

Tectonic setting

The coastline of Guatemala lies above the convergent boundary where the Cocos Plate is being subducted beneath the North American Plate or Caribbean Plate along the line of the Middle America Trench. The northern part of the country hosts the Motagua Fault and Chixoy-Polochic Fault, The Motagua Fault was the source of many destructive earthquakes in Northern Guatemala, most notably the 1976 Guatemala earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5. ^{[4] [5]}

Earthquake

On September 18, 1991, at 3:48 am local time, an earthquake was recorded, having a Focal depth of 77 kilometres (48 mi), the earthquake was 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) south-east of Patzún, Guatemala or 60 miles (97 km) from Guatemala City, Guatemala. The earthquake shook for ten seconds, before becoming normal. ^{[6] [7]}

Locals felt several aftershocks, followed by an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.0 the same evening. ^[7]

Effects

The earthquake struck the department of Chimaltenango and other departments surrounding it,

References