2022 Guatemala earthquake

The coastline of Guatemala lies above the convergent boundary where the Cocos Plate is being subducted beneath the North American Plate or Caribbean Plate along the line of the Middle America Trench. Earthquakes associated with this plate boundary include the 7.4 M_w  2012 Guatemala earthquake that ruptured the plate interface, and the 6.9 M_w  2014 Mexico–Guatemala earthquake caused by faulting within the subducting Cocos Plate. The northern part of the country hosts the Motagua Fault and Chixoy-Polochic Fault, accommodating left-lateral strike-slip movement on the transform boundary between the North American and Caribbean plates. The Motagua Fault was the source of many destructive earthquakes in Northern Guatemala, most notably the 1976 Guatemala earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 M_w .^[5][6]

The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 according to local seismological agencies but was later revised to 6.2 in the moment magnitude scale by the United States Geological Survey (USGS).^[2] The quake, at a depth of 83.6 km (52 mi), reached a peak intensity of VI (Strong) on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale.