The National Seismology Network issued a statement regarding the seismic activity that has been registered in the past week in the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica.

“During the last week there have been several earthquakes strong enough to be felt in Costa Rica, located in different points of the country’s Pacific coast. These earthquakes have taken place close to the Osa Península, to the south of Dominical, the west of Jacó and close to Sámara. Three of them stand out, with a magnitude of over 5.0 in the Richter scale, one in the early hours of August 27 (Mw 5.3), a second one September 1 (Mw. 5.7) and the third one on September 2 (Mw 5.0) (See Map). The origin of this seismic activity is the subduction of Cocos plate.

The National Seismology Network (RSN UCR-ICE), reiterates that earthquakes cannot be predicted with certainty, in other words, it is not possible to establish the specific date, hour or place when and where an earthquake will occur. We also remind the population that Costa Rica is a high seismicity country due to its location in the limit of the tectonic plates. Frequent strong earthquakes are common in the country, we have experimented many throughout history and therefore the population should always be prepared to face this phenomenon.”

Costa Rica is in a position where there is interaction between three big tectonic plates, the Cocos plate, the Caribe plate and Nazca. This is a situation that is shared with other countries located in the Ring of Fire (a major area in the basin of the Pacific Ocean where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur) such as Japan, Mexico, Peru and Chile.

Several big magnitude earthquakes have occurred through Costa Rica’s history that have caused damages: among them the September 5, 2012 earthquake in Guanacaste with a magnitude of 7.6; the Cóbano earthquake of 1990 (Mw.7.0), Limón in 1991 (Mw 7.7) , Golfito in 1983 (Mw.7.4).