M 8.2 - near the coast of Chiapas, Mexico

Tectonic Summary

The September 8th, 2017, M 8.2 earthquake offshore Chiapas, Mexico, occurred as the result of normal faulting at an intermediate depth. Focal mechanism solutions for the earthquake indicate slip occurred on either a fault dipping very shallowly towards the southwest, or on steeply dipping fault striking NW-SE. At the location of this event, the Cocos plate converges with North America at a rate of approximately 76 mm/yr, in a northeast direction. The Cocos plate begins its subduction beneath Central America at the Middle America Trench, just over 100 km to the southwest of this earthquake. The location, depth, and normal-faulting mechanism of this earthquake indicate that it is likely an intraplate event, within the subducting Cocos slab, rather than on the shallower megathrust plate boundary interface.

While commonly plotted as points on maps, earthquakes of this size are more appropriately described as slip over a larger fault area. Normal-faulting events of the size of the September 8th, 2017 earthquake are typically about 200x50 km (length x width).

Over the preceding century, the region within 250 km of the hypocenter of the September 8th, 2017 earthquake has experienced 8 other M 7+ earthquakes. Most occurred in the subduction zone to the southeast of the September 8 event, near the Mexico-Guatemala border, and none were larger than M 7.5. The largest, a M 7.4 thrust faulting earthquake offshore Guatemala in November 2012, resulted in at least 48 fatalities and over 150 injuries, and significant damage near the coast.

Potential Liquefaction and Landslides

Zhu, Jing, Baise, L.G., Thompson, E. M., 2017, An Updated Geospatial Liquefaction Model for Global Application, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 107, p 1365-1385, doi: 0.1785/0120160198

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Nowicki, M.A., Wald, D.J., Hamburger, M.W., Hearne, Michael, and Thompson, E.M., 2014, Development of a globally applicable model for near real-time prediction of seismically induced landslides: Engineering Geology, v. 173, p. 54–65, doi: 10.1016/j.enggeo.2014.02.002

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This information is preliminary or provisional and is subject to revision. It is being provided to meet the need for timely science to assess ongoing hazards. The information has not received final approval by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and is provided on the condition that neither the USGS nor the U.S. Government shall be held liable for any damages resulting from the authorized or unauthorized use of the information.