By Sarah de Sainte Croix, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A 7.0 magnitude earthquake shook the remote border region of Acre in the Brazilian Amazon at around mid-day yesterday. Telephone lines are down and there are reports of minor damage to houses. As yet, no serious casualties have been reported.
According to data from the U.S. Geological Survey the quake originated in the town of Pucallpa, in a sparsely populated central-eastern region of Peru on the border with Brazil, some 600 km (370 miles) from the Peruvian capital Lima.
Shock waves were felt up to 210 km (130 miles) from the epicenter, in the town of Cruzeiro do Sul in the state of Acre. However, seismologists are not anticipating major damage because the earthquake occurred almost 145 km (90 miles) underground.
By comparison, the 5.8 magnitude earthquake that hit the East Coast of the U.S. on Tuesday registered a depth of just 6 km (3.75 miles), magnifying its potency to make it Virginia’s largest quake since 1897.
The Associate Press reports the area as one of the world’s most seismically active, August 15, 2007 was the most recent deadly quake, when 596 people we killed during 7.9 magnitude temblor.
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