Seismicity of Central and South America

• Main Authors: Gutenberg, B., Richter, Charles F.
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Depart of state. Division of International Conferences 1940
• Subjects: Galapagos; Pacific; Sandwich Islands; South Georgia; South Sandwich Islands
• Online Access: https://authors.library.caltech.edu/110962/; https://authors.library.caltech.edu/110962/1/Gutenberg_1942p455.pdf; https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20210920-172507249

The seismic zones of Central and South America are part of the circum-Pacific belt of activity which includes a large majority of the shallow shocks of the world, a still larger fraction of those at intermediate depth (60 to 300 kilometers) and all those at great depth (300-700 kilometers). This belt has many narrow branches. One of these diverges in the region of Oaxaca (Mexico) and passes southward by way of the Galapagos Islands and along the Easter Island rise. Two others have the form of loops--one surrounding the Caribbean Sea, and the other following the "Southern Antilles" of Suess-South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands, etc.