Compilation of a harmonized point collection of the vertical deformation componentfrom the 7.6 Mw Limón Earthquake of 1991 in Costa Rica and a comparisonwith the current state of deformation

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2316-9095.v26-239135

Keywords:

Uplift, Earthquake, Co-seismic deformation, Post-seismic relaxation, Vertical component

Abstract

The Limón earthquake that occurred on April 22, 1991, was one of the largest disasters recorded in Costa Rica, resulting in significant uplift on the Caribbean coast. After the earthquake, there have been several investigations into the surface deformations caused by the main shock. However, there is just one instance where researchers tried to gather a homogeneous deformation dataset from the other studies. In our study, we carried out a deeper investigation into several historical sources that report deformations to fill the  information gap. Also, we tested the possibility of using the Costa Rica height system to expand the area of coverage, especially at the epicenter and deeper inland. As a result, we gathered 113 observations from 7 different sources, which dated from the date of the 1991 event to 1999. Furthermore, deformation data at 16 benchmarks from the Costa Rican height network were gathered from different studies and new observations. Most of the benchmarks show a positive deformation for the vertical component even when deformation  measurements were carried out 30 years after the earthquake.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Adamek, S., Frohlich, C., Pennington, W. (1988). Seismicity of the Caribbean-Nazca Boundary Constraints on Microplate Tectonics of the Panama Region. Journal of Geophysical Research, 93(B3), 2053-2075.

Amador, J. A., Chacón, R. E., Lizano, O. G. (1994). Estudio de efectos geofísicos del Terremoto de Limón mediante percepción remota y análisis hidrometereológico. Revista Geológica de América Central. Available at: https://archivo.revistas.ucr.ac.cr//index.php/geologica/article/view/13448/12703. Accessed on: Aug 28, 2025.

Barrantes, G., Vahrson, W. G., Mora, S. (2021). Cambios geomorfológicos e hidrológicos inducidos por el terremoto (Mw 7, 7) del 22 de abril de 1991 en la provincia de Limón, Costa Rica. Revista Geológica de América Central, 65, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.15517/rgac.v0i65.46881

Camacho, E., Víquez, V. (1994). Licuefacción y hundimientos costeros en el noroeste de Panamá durante el Terremoto de Limón. Revista geológica de América central. Available at: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=6319126. Accessed on: Sep 06, 2025.

Chacón-Barrantes, S., Zamora, N. (2017). Numerical Simulations of the 1991 Limón Tsunami, Costa Rica Caribbean Coast. Pure and Applied Geophysics, 174(8), 2945–2959. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-017-1631-x

Cordero, G., Lara, G. (2023). Determinación de coordenada elipsoidal y Gravedad relativa a los bancos de nivel identificados de costa Rica.

DeMets, C., Gordon, R. G., Argus, D. F. (2010). Geologically current plate motions. Geophysical Journal International, 181, 1-80. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.2009.04491.x

Denyer, P., Arias, O., Personius, S. (1994). Efecto tectónico del terremoto de Limón. Revista Geológica de América Central. Available at: https://scispace.com/pdf/efecto-tectonico-del-terremoto-de-limon-58b8nf1ia2.pdf. Accessed on: Aug 28, 2025.

Dörries, E., Roldán, J. (1999). Estudio comparativo del datum geodésico de Ocotepeque y el datum satelitario del sistema WGS84. Informe Final Del Proyecto de Investigación, Escuela de Topografía, Catastro y Geodesia. Heredia, Costa Rica: Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional.

Dörries, E., Roldán, J. (2004). El datum geodesic de Ocotepeque y el datum satelitario del sistema WGS84. Uniciencia. Available at: https://repositorio.una.ac.cr/items/b4a462b7-110e-4244-af05-7bbe6112ec45/full. Accessed on: Sep 01, 2025.

Dziewonski, A. M., Chou, T. A., Woodhouse, J. H. (1981). Determination of earthquake source parameters from waveform data for studies of global and regional seismicity. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 86, 2825-2852. https://doi.org/10.1029/JB086iB04p02825

Ekström, G., Nettles, M., Dziewoński, A. M. (2012). The global CMT project 2004–2010: Centroid-moment tensors for 13,017 earthquakes. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 200-201, 1-9. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pepi.2012.04.002.

Fu, G., Zhao, J., Liu, T., Gao, S., Wang, Z. (2025). Spatiotemporal evolution of post-seismic deformation caused by large earthquakes around the Pacific and its impact on plate movement. Geophysical Journal International, 240(1), 201-211. https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggae383

Garbanzo-León, J., Fernández, A. V., Sánchez, M. V., Salvatierra, J. P., Kingdon, R. W., Lücke, O. H. (2020). A regional Stokes-Helmert geoid determination for Costa Rica (GCR-RSH-2020): computation and evaluation. Contributions to Geophysics and Geodesy, 50(2), 223-247. https://doi.org/10.31577/congeo.2020.50.2.3

Geotecnologías (2006). Trasformación de Coordenadas Entre Sistemas de Referencia. Informe Técnico N° 14 para la definición y oficialización del sistema de coordenadas. San José, Costa Rica: Registro Nacional de la República de Costa Rica.

Ghilani, C. D. (2017) Adjustment computations: spatial data analysis. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119390664

Lundgren, P. R., Kornreich Wolf, S., Protti, M., Hurst, K. J. (1993). GPS measurements of crustal deformation associated with the 22 April 1991, Valle de la Estrella, Costa Rica earthquake. Geophysical Research Letters, 20(5), 407-410. https://doi.org/10.1029/93GL00294

Monge, R. (1991). Medición de la red nacional de coordenadas con equipo de georecepción de satélites. Revista Del Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y Arquitectos, 34, 26-30. Available at: https://revista.cfia.or.cr/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/revista34-5.pdf. Accessed on: Aug 28, 2025.

Niemeier, W. W., Roldan, J., Aguilar, L., Pelzer, H., Bagge, A., Augath, W., Seifert, W. (1993). The project CORBAS—Determination of recent crustal movements in Costa Rica. In: W. Torge et al. (eds.) Recent Geodetic and Gravimetric Research in Latin America. 146-156. Berlin: Springer. Available at: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-642-88055-1_12.pdf. Accessed on: Aug 28, 2025.

Obaldía, F., Marino, T., Van Der Laat, R., Malavassi, E., Hernandez, F., Morera, R., Trejos, F., Slattery, K., Mc Nally, K. C. (1991). Levantamiento cosísmico asociado al terremoto del 22 de abril de 1991, Ms=7.5 Valle de la Estrella, Limón, Costa Rica Parte I. Heredia, Costa Rica: Universidad Nacional. Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica. Available at: https://pesquisa.bvsalud.org/portal/resource/pt/des-2808. Accessed on: Aug 28, 2025.

Ozawa, S., Nishimura, T., Munekane, H., Suito, H., Kobayashi, T., Tobita, M., Imakiire, T. (2012). Preceding, coseismic, and postseismic slips of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, Japan. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JB009120

Plafker, G., Ward, S. N. (1992). Backarc thrust faulting and tectonic uplift along the Caribbean Sea coast during the April 22, 1991 Costa Rica earthquake. Tectonics, 11(4), 709-718. https://doi.org/10.1029/92TC00609

Quesada-Román, A. (2016). Impactos geomorfológicos del Terremoto de Limón (1991; ms= 7.5) y consideraciones para la prevención de riesgos asociados en Costa Rica. Revista Geográfica de América Central, 1(56), 93-111. https://doi.org/10.15359/rgac.1-56.4

Rodríguez-Roblero, M. J., Lobo-Aguilar, S., Vargas-Alas, L. G., Castillo-Barahona, R. (2021). Impacto del terremoto de Limón de 1991 en el diseño estructural de puentes. Revista Geológica de América Central, 65, 430-446. https://doi.org/10.15517/rgac.v0i65.46880

Sauter, F. (1994). Evaluación de daños en puentes y otras estructuras civiles causados por el terremoto de Limón. Revista Geológica de América Central. Available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10669/22548. Accessed on: Aug 28, 2025.

Soulas, J. P. (1991). El sismo de Limón-Changuinola (Costa Rica y Panamá) del 22 de abril de 1991. Communities & Collections, 1-13. Available at: https://www.cne.go.cr/cedo-crid/pdf/spa/doc656/doc656-contenido.pdf. Accessed on: Jan 14, 2026.

U.S. Geological Survey. (n.d.). Significant Earthquakes - 1991. Available at: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/browse/significant.php?year=1991. Accessed on: 19 Feb. 2025.

U.S. Geological Survey. (2014). M 7.6 - 34 km S of Limón, Costa Rica. Available at: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usp0004qpg/origin/detail?source=us&code=usp0004qpg. Accessed on: 19 Feb. 2025.

Wang, K., Hu, Y., He, J. (2012). Deformation cycles of subduction earthquakes in a viscoelastic Earth. Nature, 484(7394), 327–332. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11032

Yamagiwa, S., Miyazaki, S., Hirahara, K., Fukahata, Y. (2015). Afterslip and viscoelastic relaxation following the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake (Mw9.0) inferred from inland GPS and seafloor GPS/Acoustic data. Geophysical Research Letters, 42(1), 66-73. https://doi.org/https://doi.rg/10.1002/2014GL061735

Downloads

Published

2026-02-02

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Garbanzo León, J., Hernández Jiménez, C., Vega Fernández, A., Varela Sánchez, M., McGregor Sanabria, J., & Lücke, O. (2026). Compilation of a harmonized point collection of the vertical deformation componentfrom the 7.6 Mw Limón Earthquake of 1991 in Costa Rica and a comparisonwith the current state of deformation. Geologia USP. Série Científica, 26(1), 3-17. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2316-9095.v26-239135