Magnitude Comparison: The 1998 and 2016 Earthquakes in Ecuador

Ecuador’s Shakes: Comparing the ’98 and ’16 Earthquakes

Ecuador, nestled right on the Pacific Ring of Fire, well, it’s no stranger to a bit of shaking and rolling. Being parked on the edge where the Nazca and South American plates grind against each other means earthquakes are just a fact of life there. You see smaller tremors all the time, but the big ones, the ones that really make you sit up and take notice – magnitude 7.0 or higher – they tend to rumble through every five to ten years, give or take. Let’s take a look at two quakes that really left their mark: the one that hit Bahía de Caráquez in ’98, and the big one in 2016.

Back in ’98: Bahía de Caráquez Trembles

It was August 4th, 1998. Just before 2 PM local time, the ground started to buck and roll near Bahía de Caráquez, a town right on the coast in Manabí province. Clocked in at magnitude 7.2, it wasn’t messing around. The epicenter was only about 10 clicks north of town, a bit northwest of Guayaquil and west of Quito. And it was shallow, too, only about 33 km deep. What’s interesting is that there was a smaller quake, a magnitude 5.4, about an hour and a half before the main event. That little shake probably gave some folks a heads-up that something bigger was coming.

Now, what caused all this? Well, it’s that same old story: the Nazca plate doing its thing, sliding under the South American plate. That’s what makes this whole region so prone to earthquakes in the first place. This particular quake was a shallow “thrust” earthquake, basically a jolt as one plate shoves under another.

Bahía de Caráquez took a beating. Power went out, phones died, and the water stopped flowing. Buildings cracked, crumbled, and some were just plain wrecked – including the main hospital, the phone company, and even the local bank. I heard that a good chunk of the buildings in town were damaged, some beyond repair. And up in Canoa, they say about 60% of the buildings were hit. The initial reports said no one died, which was a relief, but later on, the news came out that three people had lost their lives, and around 40 were injured.

2016: When the Coast Reeled

Fast forward to April 16th, 2016. Just before 7 PM, the coast of Ecuador got hammered by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake. This one was centered a bit south of Muisne, in Esmeraldas province. It was deeper than the ’98 quake, around 20 km down. Even up in Quito, which is a good distance away, people felt it big time. And it wasn’t just Ecuador; folks in Colombia and Peru felt the shaking, too. They even put out a tsunami alert for the whole area.

Just like before, this was the Nazca plate doing its thing. These plates are converging at a rate of about 61 mm per year. This earthquake was a megathrust earthquake, resulting from a rupture along the plate interface.

Manabí province got the worst of it. Places like Manta, Pedernales, and Portoviejo saw a lot of death and destruction. The shopping district in Tarqui, a part of Manta, was practically leveled. It was heartbreaking. The final count was grim: at least 676 people died, and over 27,000 were hurt. It was the worst natural disaster to hit Ecuador since that massive quake back in 1949. President Correa said it would take billions to rebuild.

Size Matters: Comparing the Two

Okay, so both quakes were bad news, but the 2016 one was definitely the bigger bully. A magnitude of 7.8 compared to 7.2 might not sound like a huge difference, but trust me, it is. That extra bit on the scale means a whole lot more energy being released.

And that extra energy translated into a lot more damage and a lot more people getting hurt. The ’98 quake was bad, but the 2016 one was just devastating.

Ring of Fire Realities

Both of these earthquakes happened in a place that’s just primed for them. This area has a long history of big quakes caused by those plates grinding away. The 2016 quake even ruptured a part of the plate boundary that had already broken back in 1942. And that ’98 quake? It was linked to activity at the Wawa Pichincha volcano. Living on the Ring of Fire means you’re always looking over your shoulder, waiting for the next rumble.

The Bottom Line

The earthquakes of ’98 and 2016 are a tough reminder of what Ecuador faces. The ’98 quake was a wake-up call, but the 2016 one was a full-blown disaster. It shows you just how important it is to be ready for these things, to build strong buildings, and to have a plan in place when the ground starts to shake. Ecuador is a beautiful country, but it’s also a place where you have to respect the power of nature.