Earthquakes in Guatemala

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Guatemala has the honor to be transected by the collision of two major tectonic plates, the North American Plate and the Carribean Plate. They are still moving, one pushing up and over the other, leaving an easily visible fault in the surface of the earth, called the Motagua Fault, that runs right across the whole country. See photo 1.



This fault runs right near Antigua, and is responsible for its distinguished history of earthquakes. There was a fairly big one in 1717, and another in 1751. In 1765 they had an 8.2 that ruptured the earth all the way into Chiapas. Then the Big One hit on July 29 1773, leaving most of the city of Antigua in rubble. With that, the Antiguans had had it. Formerly the capital city, Antigua was essentially abandoned for many years, with the survivors moving to a new capital, called Guatemala City, about 45 miles away. But the quakes continued. There were twelve more until the next Big One in 1976 which hit the new capital and killed 22,000 people. They continue; the latest being a 7.4 out the jungle somewhere in 2012 that did not kill anyone that they know of.



This is why there are so many huge ruins in Antigua. There are at least six that you can visit, all with beautiful gardens surrounding the ruin of a monastery or convent or a church. See photos 2 and 3. Even the main Cathedral of Guatemala, down in the Plaza Mayor, was never completely rebuilt after 1773. They built only a small part of the old cathedral back, but that is plenty big enough. We witnessed a service there last Sunday, indistinguishable from any other Catholic service except for the TV screens on which those in the far recesses of the church could see face the celebrant. It was just an ordinary Sunday, and the Bishop was not present.

On the way to see the big cathedral, you pass the ruins of a convent that are not particularly restored or beautiful. One collapsed side is used as a storage yard for the Semana Santa floats, usually locked up, but for some reason accessible last Saturday. There are dozens of them, all extremely heavy and full of painted Catholic statues of the Passion, which as you may know, was a fairly normal Roman execution of a dreadful man who had desecrated the main Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. He got what he was asking for as I see it, but not many see it that way. Semana Santa is huge here, with a huge parade that is in many ways quite terifyingly fascist.

Next time: Our trip down the Rio Motagua, and then north to Tikal.

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