Magnitude 8.0 earthquake, 75km SSE of Lagunas, Peru

Re:Magnitude 8.0 earthquake, 75km SSE of Lagunas, Peru by dbrgn on Sunday May 26, 2019 @07:52AM (#20014427)

That region is not densely populated fortunately. Mostly affected are Yurimaguas (population 60k), Tarapoto (population 180k) and Moyobamba (population 80k).

From what I gathered on Twitter, there are some collapsed buildings and some power outages, probably a few people hurt, but nothing as devastating as during the 2007 earthquake in Ica.

This happened in the middle of the night and it's now early morning, so more news will probably come in over the next hours.

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Re:Magnitude 8.0 earthquake, 75km SSE of Lagunas, Peru by tenken on Sunday May 26, 2019 @09:25AM (#20014801)

Not "densely" populated unless you're one of the 240k living there.

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Re:Magnitude 8.0 earthquake, 75km SSE of Lagunas, Peru by dbrgn on Sunday May 26, 2019 @11:20AM (#20015337)

I lived about 300 km from the epicenter for many years. Large parts of that region are nothing but jungle and rivers, with little villages spread around. The natives build their houses/huts mostly using tree trunks tied together with vines, which are surprisingly resistant to strong earthquakes because the structure is so flexible.

Yurimaguas and Tarapoto do have a sizeable population, but still, from what I heard so far the damage is nothing compared to the 2007 M8 quake that destroyed 85% of Pisco and killed many hundred people.

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Re:Magnitude 8.0 earthquake, 75km SSE of Lagunas, Peru by elyobo on Sunday May 26, 2019 @09:51AM (#20014913)

Whether you're affected or not it's still not "densely populated". The GP isn't saying it somehow doesn't matter, just that thankfully fewer people will be negatively impacted by it.

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Re:Magnitude 8.0 earthquake, 75km SSE of Lagunas, Peru by aaomidi on Sunday May 26, 2019 @11:23AM (#20015354)

Thing is they're probably not living in big constructions, just small huts which is much easier to survive these tragedies I think.

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