Guatemala Earthquake 1976

Guatemala Earthquake 1976. "Mole track" across the soccer field at Gualan consisting of en echelon fissures and connecting pressure ridges along the trace of the Motagua fault.
Displacement at this locality is over 3 fRepaired offset irrigation canal that crossed a surface break of the Motagua fault. The concrete patch was made about mid- March. Left lateral offset of the fracture in the patched interval is shown by arrows. Photo by R.C. Bucknam, April 18, 1976.
Graphs showing measured horizontal displacement (below) and vertical displacement (above) along the 230 kilometer length of the observed surface rupture of the Motagua fault. Displacement across the fault is sinistral (left-lateral) and is almost entirely horizontal with the strike-slip component ranging up to 340 centimeters and averaging about 110 centimeters. Vertical displacements are variable and less than 30 percent of the horizontal displacements. Note the large lateral variations in both horizontal and vertical slip.
Southward along a row of trees offset about 3.25 meters in a sinistral sense where it is intersected by the Motagua fault. The amount of offset is indicated by the distance between the row of trees on the right and the stake at which the man points. The stake is aligned with the row of trees in the background. The fault here is a single fissure oriented perpendicular to the line of trees; there is no measurable vertical displacement.