M 6.8 in Ecuador on 18 Mar 2023 17:12 UTC

Event summary

This earthquake can have a high humanitarian impact based on the magnitude and the affected population and their vulnerability.

GDACS ID EQ 1365556
Earthquake Magnitude: 6.8M
Glide number: EQ-2023-000038-ECU
Depth: 66.421 Km
Lat/Lon: -2.8273 , -79.862799999999993
Event Date: 18 Mar 2023 17:12 UTC
18 Mar 2023 12:12 Local
Exposed Population: 650 thousand (in MMI>=VII)
Inserted at: 18 Mar 2023 17:51 UTC
INFORM Coping capacity:
4.3 (Ecuador)

GDACS Score

For more info on GDACS alert score click here.
  Earthquake
(Shakemap)		 Tsunami GDACS score
NEIC 2.7 0 2.7
us7000jl3s Scaled population (raster) 6.46 Max wave alert 0m  
  C1 shakemap -0.59 Max wave realtime 0m  
  C2 shakemap 0.53      
  Country Vulnerability 0      
  INFORM_normalised 1.85      
Maximum expected impact using different data sources.
Virtual OSOCC
Meteo assessment
Satellite products
Analytical products
Ecuador, Peru - Earthquake, update (ECHO 20 Mar 2023)Mon, 20 Mar 2023 11:07

  • Following the 6.8 M earthquake (6.5 for Ecuadorean Authorities) that occurred on 18 March at 17:12 UTC that affected mostly the Provinces of Guayas, Azuay, Cañar y El Oro (central-southwestern Ecuacuor), the amount of injured people and damage has increased. In addition, the seismic event hit Tumbes Province (north-western Peru) and resulted in casualties and damage.
  • In Ecuador, the Risk Management Secretariat of Ecuador (SGR) reports 13 fatalities (11 in El Oro Province and two in Azuay Province), 461 injured people, 89 destroyed houses and 192 damaged.
  • In Peru, according to the National Institute of Civil Defense of Peru (INDECI), one person died, another has been injured, 140 people have been affected, and more than 50 houses have been damaged or destroyed across Tumbes Province.
  • National authorities are still conducting the damage assessment and are providing help for those affected.
  • For the next 24 hours, moderate rain is expected over western Ecuador (including the affected Provinces) and north-western Peru.
M6.8 in Ecuador - EC/ECHO daily mapMon, 20 Mar 2023 16:50

A new EC/ECHO daily map is now available
M6.8 in Ecuador - UNITAR-UNOSAT ActivationThu, 23 Mar 2023 14:09

UNITAR-UNOSAT Potentially Damaged Buildings has been activated
Detailed event map. European Union, 2026. Map produced by EC-JRC.
The boundaries and the names shown on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the European Union.

Updates on volcanic activity (Smithsonian)

Estimated casualties (PAGER)

USGS estimates the number of casualties for each earthquake for the Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) product.
The graph shows the current fatalities estimate.

Exposed population

Data, images, links, services and documents

For this events, GDACS has links to information from the following sources: EC-JRC (90), NEIC (5), OCHA (1), DesInventar (2), WMO (2), USGS (5), (3), INFORM (4),