The June 17, 2015 M 7.0 Southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge earthquake occurred as the result of left-lateral strike-slip faulting on or near a transform fault forming part of the South America: Africa (Nubia) plate boundary. At the latitude of this earthquake, the South America plate moves approximately westward at the rate of 33 mm/yr with respect to Nubia.
While historic earthquakes have occurred in the same region and may occure on the same structure as this earthquake, the fracture zone does not appear to be named. Moderate- to-large earthquakes in this region of the south Atlantic are not uncommon - over the past century, sixteen other earthquakes of M 6.0-6.6 have occurred within 250 km of the June 17, 2015 event, both along the same fracture zone and in association with other shorter fracture zones to the south.
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