Abstract

The cortical earthquake of Cuericí of April 24, 1991 (Mw 6.1) occurred 45 km west and two days after the Limón earthquake of April 22, 1991 (Mw 7.7), for these reasons it could be considered a triggered earthquake. The analysis of the seismicity reported in previous studies allowed to define the sequence associated with the Cuericí earthquake. By means of the relation between tectonic geomorphology and seismicity, in this work it is defined that the east-northeast left-lateral strike-slip División Fault was the seismogenic source of the Cuericí event. Based in results obtained in previous investigations it is considered that the Buenavista earthquake of July 3, 1983 (Ms 6.3) was also related with a rupture along the División Fault. This means that two contiguous segments of the División fault rupture in less than 8 years.

Keywords: Neotectonics; Tectonic Geomorphology; Seismicity; Seismotectonics, Central Costa Rica Deformed Belt