Strong Earthquake hits northern Argentina

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

*Great earthquakes In Diverse Places

Strong Earthquake hits northern Argentina*

November 15, 2009 - 8:24AM

AFP

A strong 6.1-magnitude earthquake has struck far northern Argentina near
its border with Chile and Bolivia, the US Geological Survey says.

The quake rattled part of the Andes mountains region at 4.44pm on
Saturday (0644 AEDT on Sunday), some 190 kilometres northwest of San
Salvador de Jujuy and 240km southwest of Tarija, Bolivia at a depth of
141km, according to the USGS.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The tremor followed two substantial quakes in the region on Friday,
including one of magnitude 6.5 near the Chile-Peru border and another
measuring 5.8 that struck several hundred kilometres to the north of
Argentina's Jujuy province.

The readings are based on the open-ended Moment Magnitude scale, now
used by US seismologists, which measures the area of the fault that
ruptured and the total energy released.

Earthquakes are common in the western part of South America, along which
runs the Peru-Chile trench, a region home to the seismically active
Pacific Ring of Fire.