Authorities reported that a massive magnitude 7.5 earthquake rocked the northern parts of Peru, damaging a significant number of homes, reducing a Catholic temple to rubble, and injuring several residents.
Officials said that the quake occurred in a sparsely populated region of the Amazon rainforest that is located 45 kilometers northwest of the city of Barranca, said the Euro-MediterraneanSeismological Centre (EMSC).
Massive 7.5 Magnitude Earthquake
Experts said that while the earthquake was significantly powerful, it originated at a depth of around 110 kilometers, which meant the damage it caused was relatively limited. But this also meant that the tremors were felt over a much larger area.
Ecuadorian authorities said 19 out of their 24 provinces reportedly felt the massive 7.5 magnitude earthquake. The EMSC said that multiple accounts from people who felt the earthquake in Colombia revealed the extent of the incident, showing it reached 1,000 kilometers away from its epicenter.
Shortly after the earthquake, authorities only reported three minor injuries observed in Chachapoyas province. The area is where a local mayor said that several homes were destroyed while a church tower forming part of a 16th-century complex, considered to be the oldest Catholic temple, was reduced to rubble, Independent reported.
Social media users captured photographs and video recordings of the incident that showed the historic tower reduced to a pile of stones while the main atrium of the building appeared to have survived the brunt of the earthquake.
Additionally, many online users posted photographs that showed the extent of the damage caused by the earthquake in other regions of Peru. The images showed the inside of a church in southern Ecuador, NBC News reported.
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The situation was followed by Peru's President, Pedro Castillo Terrones, pledging support for the people that were affected and displaced by the 7.5 magnitude earthquake on Sunday. In a Twitter post, the president said that he was expressing his solidarity with the people of the country and revealed that he had already arranged for the ministries and agencies of the executive branch to implement immediate action.
Terrones said that residents affected by the incident were not alone and will be supported by the federal government. The president of Peru also posted on social media where he announced that he was departing shortly to visit affected areas in the Amazonas region.
Damage of Earthquakes
While no casualties have been reported, officials said that buildings and roads across the region were significantly damaged as shown in videos that the National Police of Peru uploaded. Additionally, authorities reassured that the earthquake did not result in any tsunami alerts, CNN reported.
The recent, massive earthquake followed the previous tremors that hit the county with a magnitude of 5.2 with its epicenter in El Callao, Lima. The U.S. government agency revealed that, over the past century, there have been five other intermediate-depth earthquakes within 250km of the epicenter of the 7.5 magnitude earthquake in Peru that had at least magnitude 7 strengths.
The most recent of the tremors was a massive magnitude 8 earthquake that occurred on May 26, 2019. The government said that the incident resulted in the death of two people and the injury of 15 others.
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