2026-03-27 | in Field work, Paper
The Motagua Fault in Guatemala is part of the North American – Caribbean plate boundary. It ruptured in a M7.5 earthquake in 1976, killing 23,000 people and causing ca. 230 km of surface ruptures. Very little was known, however, about previous strong earthquakes on this fault. In a new study, we identify five surface-rupturing events in the last 1300 years, including the 1976 quake. We opened a paleoseismological trench and compared our results with archaeological information from nearby sites and historical earthquake data.
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