Last Saturday, April 22, the Geophysical Observatory of Uruguay registered an earthquake local magnitude 2 east of the city of San José.
As reported by El País and confirmed The Observer with the geologist and professor at the University of the Republic, Leda Sánchez, “the event was of low magnitude” and it was not dangerous.
The quake was in the past Saturday around 10:45 p.m.but only last Thursday the seismographs were certain that the epicenter was in Canteras Choca, department of San José.
The Geophysical Observatory of Uruguay has three points to detect these phenomena: the department of Florida, the Rincón del Bonete dam and the west coast. “Today we have a network that covers almost the entire national territory”Sanchez said.
Why do these earthquakes occur?
As Sánchez commented, “tectonic plates shift and stress builds up in some places and at some point energy is released in the form of earthquakes.”
In this specific case, the earthquake could have been generated by a “reactivation of some old fault”Although further investigation is required to be certain.
In the case of small earthquakes like the one registered in San José, specialists work based on the perception of the earthquakes that the population perceives. “Many times we record it randomly”due to the shortage of funds, commented Sánchez.
