This list of earthquakes in Ecuador is a list of notable earthquakes that have affected Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

 in recorded history. The list is currently incomplete.

Tectonic setting

The active tectonics

Tectonics

Tectonics is a field of study within geology concerned generally with the structures within the lithosphere of the Earth and particularly with the forces and movements that have operated in a region to create these structures.Tectonics is concerned with the orogenies and tectonic development of...

 of Ecuador is dominated by the effects of the subduction

Subduction

In geology, subduction is the process that takes place at convergent boundaries by which one tectonic plate moves under another tectonic plate, sinking into the Earth's mantle, as the plates converge. These 3D regions of mantle downwellings are known as "Subduction Zones"...

 of the Nazca Plate

Nazca Plate

]The Nazca Plate, named after the Nazca region of southern Peru, is an oceanic tectonic plate in the eastern Pacific Ocean basin off the west coast of South America. The ongoing subduction along the Peru-Chile Trench of the Nazca Plate under the South American Plate is largely responsible for the...

 beneath the South American Plate

South American Plate

The South American Plate is a continental tectonic plate which includes the continent of South America and also a sizeable region of the Atlantic Ocean seabed extending eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge....

. Ecuador lies within the Northern Volcanic Zone where the subduction zone is moving at a rate of 7 cm/yr to the east-northeast, significantly oblique to the trend of this segment of the Andes. The subduction zone has an overall dip of 25–30°, but varies rapidly along strike due to the effects of subduction of the Carnegie Ridge

Carnegie Ridge

The Carnegie Ridge is an aseismic ridge on the Nazca Plate that is currently being subducted beneath the South American Plate. The ridge is thought to be a result of the passage of the Nazca Plate over the Galapagos hotspot...

. The Carnegie Ridge is and oceanic plateau that formed as the Nazca Plate passed over the Galapagos hotspot

Galápagos hotspot

The Galápagos hotspot is a volcanic hotspot in the East Pacific Ocean responsible for the creation of the Galapagos Islands as well as three major aseismic ridge systems, Carnegie, Cocos and Malpelso which are on two tectonic plates. The hotspot is located near the Equator on the Nazca Plate not...

. The plate interface above the subducted part of the ridge has a shallower dip than the area to both north and south, the boundaries interpreted to consist of two large tears in the downgoing Nazca Plate. The northern part of Ecuador overlies the subducted part of the Carnegie Ridge and is an area where the Nazca Plate is interpreted to be strongly coupled to the South American Plate, causing an unusually large degree of intraplate deformation. The main active fault

Active fault

An active fault is a fault that is likely to have another earthquake sometime in the future. Faults are commonly considered to be active if there has been movement observed or evidence of seismic activity during the last 10,000 years....

 zones of Ecuador are SSW-NNE trending dextral strike-slip faults running parallel to the main subdivisions of the Andes, two major SW-NE dextral strike-slip zones, the Pallatanga and Chingual faults, and north-south trending reverse faults such as the Quito fault.

Seismicity

Earthquakes that affect Ecuador can be divided into those that result from movement on the subduction interface along the plate boundary, those that result from deformation within the South American and Nazca Plates and those that are associated with active volcanoes.

Interplate earthquakes

Megathrust events along the subduction interface generate the largest earthquakes, often triggering destructive tsunami

Tsunami

A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...

s, such as the 1906 Ecuador-Colombia earthquake

1906 Ecuador-Colombia earthquake

The 1906 Ecuador-Colombia earthquake occurred at 15:36 UTC on January 31, off the coast of Ecuador, near Esmeraldas. The earthquake had a magnitude of 8.8 and triggered a destructive tsunami that caused at least 500 casualties on the coast of Colombia....

.

Intraplate earthquakes

The most damaging earthquakes to affect Ecuador are those associated with faulting within the South American Plate, such as the 1949 Ambato earthquake

1949 Ambato earthquake

The 1949 Ambato earthquake was the largest earthquake in the Western Hemisphere in more than five years. On August 5, 1949, it struck Ecuador's Tungurahua Province southeast of its capital, Ambato, and killed 5,050 people. Measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, it originated from a hypocenter ...

.

Earthquakes within the downgoing Nazca Plate, such as the M_w 7.1 event of August 2010, are generally too deep to cause significant damage in Ecuador although they are felt over a wide area.

Volcanic earthquakes

Swarms of relatively small earthquakes are commonly associated with volcanic activity, such as the Quito swarm in 1998-1999 related to the Guagua Pichincha volcano.

List of notable earthquakes

Date	Time‡	Place	Latitude Latitude In geography, the latitude of a location on the Earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. The latitude is an angle, and is usually measured in degrees . The equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north , and the South pole has a...	Longitude Longitude Longitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees, minutes and seconds, and denoted by the Greek letter lambda ....	Fatalities	Magnitude Moment magnitude scale The moment magnitude scale is used by seismologists to measure the size of earthquakes in terms of the energy released. The magnitude is based on the seismic moment of the earthquake, which is equal to the rigidity of the Earth multiplied by the average amount of slip on the fault and the size of...	Comments	Sources
4 February 1797	12:30	Riobamba Riobamba Riobamba is the capital of the Chimborazo Province in central Ecuador, which is located at the Chambo River Valley of the Andes. It is south of Ecuador's capital Quito and located at 2754 m on the Avenue of the Volcanoes... see 1797 Riobamba earthquake 1797 Riobamba earthquake The 1797 Riobamba earthquake occurred at 12:30 UTC on 4 February. It devastated the city of Riobamba and many other cities in the Interandean valley, causing up to 40,000 casualties. It is estimated that seismic intensities in the epicentral area reached at least XI on the Mercalli scale, and that...	-1.6	-78.6	6,000-40,000	8.3	ML
15 August 1868	19:30	Carchi Province Carchi Province - Economy :The provincial economy is based on industrial, and agriculture productions. Carchi produces food, drinks, tobacco, and dairy products. The agriculture sector produces potatoes, maize, etc. - Cantons :The province is divided into 6 cantons... see 1868 Ecuador earthquakes 1868 Ecuador earthquakes The 1868 Ecuador earthquakes occurred at 19:30 UTC on August 15 and 06:30 UTC on 16 August 1868. They caused severe damage in the northeastern part of Ecuador and in southwestern Colombia. They had an estimated magnitude of 6.3 and 6.7 and together caused up to 70,000 casualties...	0.81	-77.72		8.0	Ms
16 August 1868	06:30	Ibarra Ibarra Ibarra is a surname of Basque origin meaning 'valley' or 'plain by the river'.*Places**Ibarra is the capital of the province of Imbabura in Ecuador.**Ibarra is also a locality in Guipúzcoa, Spain.... see 1868 Ecuador earthquakes 1868 Ecuador earthquakes The 1868 Ecuador earthquakes occurred at 19:30 UTC on August 15 and 06:30 UTC on 16 August 1868. They caused severe damage in the northeastern part of Ecuador and in southwestern Colombia. They had an estimated magnitude of 6.3 and 6.7 and together caused up to 70,000 casualties...	0.31	-78.18	40,000+	7.7	Ms
31 January 1906	15:36	Esmeraldas Esmeraldas, Ecuador Esmeraldas is a coastal city in northwestern Ecuador. It is the seat of the Esmeraldas Canton and the capital of the Esmeraldas Province. It has an international sea port and a small airport .... see 1906 Ecuador-Colombia earthquake 1906 Ecuador-Colombia earthquake The 1906 Ecuador-Colombia earthquake occurred at 15:36 UTC on January 31, off the coast of Ecuador, near Esmeraldas. The earthquake had a magnitude of 8.8 and triggered a destructive tsunami that caused at least 500 casualties on the coast of Colombia....	1.0	-81.5	~1,000	8.8	Mw Triggered a large tsunami that caused at least 500 casualties on the coast of Colombia Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
5 August 1949	19:08	Ambato see 1949 Ambato earthquake 1949 Ambato earthquake The 1949 Ambato earthquake was the largest earthquake in the Western Hemisphere in more than five years. On August 5, 1949, it struck Ecuador's Tungurahua Province southeast of its capital, Ambato, and killed 5,050 people. Measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, it originated from a hypocenter ...	-1.5	-78.2	5,050	6.8	ML
19 January 1958	09:09	Esmeraldas Esmeraldas, Ecuador Esmeraldas is a coastal city in northwestern Ecuador. It is the seat of the Esmeraldas Canton and the capital of the Esmeraldas Province. It has an international sea port and a small airport .... see 1958 Ecuador-Colombia earthquake 1958 Ecuador-Colombia earthquake At 9:09 local time on January 19, 1958, a strong magnitude 7.6 Ms earthquake struck the coastal regions of Ecuador and Colombia. Approximately 30 percent of Esmeraldas was destroyed, including the children's department of the hospital, where three children died. In all, 111 persons died and 45...	-1.5	-79.5	11	7.6	Ms
6 March 1987	01:54 & 04:10	Napo Province Napo Province Napo is a province in Ecuador. Its capital is Tena. The province contains the Napo River. The province is low developed without much industrial presence. The thick rainforest is home to many natives that remain isolated by preference, descendents of those who fled the Spanish invasion in the Andes,... see 1987 Ecuador earthquakes 1987 Ecuador earthquakes The 1987 Ecuador earthquakes occurred at 1:54 GMT and 4:10 GMT on March 6, 1987 with magnitudes of 6.1 and 6.9 on the surface wave magnitude scale, respectively. The earthquakes were centered in Napo Province in northeast Ecuador; the epicenters were on the eastern slopes of the Andes, about...	0.09	-77.37	>1,000	6.1 & 6.9	Ms
4 August 1998	13:59	Bahia de Caraquez Bahía de Caráquez La Villa de San Antonio de Caráquez, known simply as Bahía de Caráquez or Bahía, is a coastal city in the Ecuadorian province of Manabí. The city is located on a sandy peninsula on the country's western coast at the mouth of the Río Chone... , Manabi Manabí Province Manabí is a province in Ecuador. Its capital is Portoviejo. The province is named after the Manabí people.-Economy:Manabí's economy is based heavily on natural resources such as cacao, bananas, cotton, etc. It's industrial sector is based on Tuna canning, tobacco, and alcoholic beverage production...	0.49	-81.76	3	7.2	Mw
12 August 2010	11:54:16	145 km east of Riobamba Riobamba Riobamba is the capital of the Chimborazo Province in central Ecuador, which is located at the Chambo River Valley of the Andes. It is south of Ecuador's capital Quito and located at 2754 m on the Avenue of the Volcanoes...	-1.260	-77.312		7.1	Mw Intermediate focus earthquake (211 km) within the Nazca Plate Nazca Plate ]The Nazca Plate, named after the Nazca region of southern Peru, is an oceanic tectonic plate in the eastern Pacific Ocean basin off the west coast of South America. The ongoing subduction along the Peru-Chile Trench of the Nazca Plate under the South American Plate is largely responsible for the... , a result of normal faulting, causing slight damage over a wide area

Magnitudes - M_w Moment magnitude scale

Moment magnitude scale

The moment magnitude scale is used by seismologists to measure the size of earthquakes in terms of the energy released. The magnitude is based on the seismic moment of the earthquake, which is equal to the rigidity of the Earth multiplied by the average amount of slip on the fault and the size of...

, M_L Richter magnitude scale

Richter magnitude scale

The expression Richter magnitude scale refers to a number of ways to assign a single number to quantify the energy contained in an earthquake....

, M_s Surface wave magnitude

Surface wave magnitude

The surface wave magnitude scale is one of the magnitude scales used in seismology to describe the size of an earthquake. It is based on measurements in Rayleigh surface waves that travel primarily along the uppermost layers of the earth...