2025 Callao earthquake

On 15 June 2025, at 11:35:23 PET (16:35:23 UTC), a M_w 5.6 earthquake took place from the city of Callao in Peru, which is a part of the Lima metropolitan area. The earthquake killed two people and injured 135 others.

2025 Callao earthquake

Damage to a building in Lima
Date	{{{date}}}
Magnitude	Mw 5.6
Depth	53.5 km (33 mi)
Epicenter location	12.147°S 77.315°W / -12.147; -77.315
Countries or regions affected	{{{countries affected}}}
Max. intensity	V (Moderate)
Aftershocks	4.2 Mw and 3.6 Mw
Casualties	2 deaths, 135 injuries

Tectonic setting

Peru sits where the Nazca plate pushes under the South American plate at the Peru–Chile Trench. Those two plates press together by about 78 mm or (3 inches) per year.

Earthquake

Moment of the earthquake captured by a CCTV camera in a market in Villa el Salvador, Lima

The center of the earthquake is from the Pacific Ocean, 23 km (14 mi) from the city of Callao which is a part of the Lima metropolitan area. It happened 53.5 km (33.2 mi) below the surface, and had a highest Modified Mercalli intensity of V (Moderate) in Callao, Vitarte, Santiago de Surco, Lima, Urb. Santo Domingo, La Molina and San Isidro, and IV (Light) in Chosica and Huacho. 28 minutes later after the earthquake, a magnitude 3.6 aftershock happened. Another aftershock with a magnitude of 4.2 happened the next day at 12:40 local time. The president of the department of the Geophysical Institute of Peru said at least four aftershocks were recorded by 16 June. But, this number went to five on 17 June after a 3.7 magnitude earthquake was recorded shortly after midnight near the Ancón District in Lima.

Damage and casualties

A CCTV camera shows the damage caused by the earthquake

The earthquake killed two people and injured 135 others, one man in the Independencia District of Lima died when a wall fell on his vehicle and another died in Callao. Four houses were destroyed, 17 others were very damaged, and 147 others were affected in the provinces of Callao, Lima, Huaura, Huaral and Huarochirí. 38 schools, 18 health centers, eight care centers, a museum, 14 public offices and the Huaca Pucllana archaeological site and a road were also damaged. Walls and roofs of homes and buildings, including a police station collapsed, and many malls and shopping centers were damaged in parts of Lima, where power and telephone services was stopped for many hours. Landslides and rockfalls happened in many areas including one which blocked the Costa Verde highway. A Peruvian Primera División soccer match between Deportivo Garcilaso and Sporting Cristal was briefly stopped because of a nearby landslide happened, although no large damage happened at the Estadio Alberto Gallardo, where the match was being played. Lima and Callao Metro service stopped for a while, and part of the Metropolitano's Balta Station collapsed. A Sunday Mass at Metropolitan Cathedral of Lima, led by cardinal Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio, had to be briefly evacuated because of the earthquake.