A deep quake travels far
Along the Andes, some quakes happen deep inside the sinking plate.
Off Peru and Chile the Nazca Plate dives beneath South America. It is one of Earth鈥檚 most productive quake factories - home to the largest earthquake ever recorded. Some events strike more than 100 km down inside the descending slab, so they can be felt across a very wide area.
What is happening at Peru-Chile Trench
The Nazca Plate is sliding under the South American Plate along the Peru-Chile Trench, building the Andes as it goes. The boundary has produced enormous megathrust earthquakes and Pacific-wide tsunamis.
Not all the action is shallow. Deep quakes inside the down-going slab, well over 100 km below the surface, can shake huge regions even when damage near the epicentre is limited.
The hazard record here
THE RECORD HERE
A magnitude 8.4 earthquake struck here in 2001.
Epicentre: 6 km SSW of Atico, Peru.
Live figures from the QuakeMate hazard API - USGS earthquake catalog, NOAA tsunami database and published recurrence estimates. Some fields are blank where there is no record.
Recent earthquakes at Peru-Chile Trench
- 2.6OFFSHORE TARAPACA, CHILE2 weeks ago 路 15/07/2026, 20:14:07 路 21 km deep
- 3.5OFFSHORE TARAPACA, CHILE4 weeks ago 路 04/07/2026, 00:40:49 路 29 km deep
- 2.6OFFSHORE TARAPACA, CHILE5 days ago 路 27/07/2026, 09:12:32 路 33 km deep
- 3.1OFFSHORE TARAPACA, CHILE4 weeks ago 路 04/07/2026, 02:51:50 路 36 km deep
- 3.2OFFSHORE TARAPACA, CHILE5 days ago 路 26/07/2026, 20:19:01 路 44 km deep
- 2.5OFFSHORE TARAPACA, CHILE4 days ago 路 28/07/2026, 08:07:39 路 32 km deep
94 more earthquakes at Peru-Chile Trench
Open the QuakeMate app to see every quake here, sorted and mapped - plus real-time alerts when a new one strikes.
Notable events
4.8Recent2026M4.8 - TARAPACA, CHILE5 days ago 路 tap for full data1960
The M9.5 Valdivia earthquake in Chile - the strongest ever recorded.
2010
The M8.8 Maule earthquake and tsunami struck central Chile.
2015
The M8.3 Illapel earthquake triggered coastal evacuations.
What scientists watch
Agencies across Chile and Peru monitor the trench for megathrust ruptures and issue Pacific tsunami warnings when large offshore quakes strike.
Staying ahead of it
Great Andean quakes come with Pacific-wide tsunami risk - the sooner the alert, the more of the coast can react.
Get QuakeMate freeGet warned before the next one at Peru-Chile Trench.
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Peru-Chile Trench: common questions
Where was the strongest earthquake ever recorded?
The 1960 magnitude 9.5 Valdivia earthquake, on the Peru-Chile subduction zone in southern Chile. The same boundary continues to produce great earthquakes today.
Why can a deep earthquake be felt so far away?
Deep quakes inside the subducting slab send their energy through a large volume of rock before it reaches the surface, spreading the shaking over a much wider area than a shallow quake of the same size.
Related hazard zones
Earthquake data via the QuakeMate API (USGS, EMSC and regional agencies). Historical notes summarise well-established events; magnitudes and dates follow the published record. Live figures may be revised.