Earthquake South Atlantic Ocean
© USGS
Event Time
2013-11-25 06:27:33 UTC
2013-11-25 02:27:33 UTC-04:00 at epicenter

Location
53.881°S 54.882°W depth=10.0km (6.2mi)

Nearby Cities
314km (195mi) SE of Stanley, Falkland Islands
877km (545mi) E of Ushuaia, Argentina
998km (620mi) ESE of Rio Gallegos, Argentina
1031km (641mi) SE of Puerto Deseado, Argentina
314km (195mi) SE of Stanley, Falkland Islands

Technical details

Additional commentary

The November 25, 2013 M7.0 earthquake (06:27:33 UTC) southwest of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean occurred as the result of strike slip faulting, on either a left-lateral fault striking ENE-WSW, or a right-lateral structure striking NNW-SSE. The location of the earthquake, near the ENE-WSW trending plate boundary between the South America and Scotia tectonic plates, suggests it is likely associated with left-lateral faulting along this margin. At the location of this earthquake, the Scotia plate moves ENE with respect to South America at a rate of approximately 9.5 mm/yr.

The November 25, 06:27:33 earthquake was the largest of 5 M5+ events that occurred in a similar area over an approximate 2-hour period, including a M5.6 earthquake 24 seconds prior to the M7.0 mainshock. Though this region experiences moderate-sized earthquakes relatively frequently - 15 M5+ events have occurred within 250 km of the November 25 earthquake over the past 40 years - large events are fairly uncommon. The largest nearby earthquake over the same time period was a M6.6 event in September 1993, 210 km to the east of the November 25 earthquake.