2006 Mendoza earthquake 2006 Mendoza earthquake The 2006 Mendoza earthquake was a medium-intensity seismic movement in the province of Mendoza, Argentina. It took place at 11:03 AM (UTC-3) on 5 August 2006, and had a magnitude of 5.7 in the Richter scale. Its hypocenter was centered at , 35 km south-southeast of Mendoza, the provincial capital, exactly at the town of "Ugarteche, Luján de Cuyo", and at a depth of 33 km. The earthquake was felt in the provinces of Mendoza (V–VI in the Mercalli intensity scale), San Juan, San Luis (IV Mercalli), La Rioja, and Córdoba (III Mercalli). It damaged about 600
San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca founded until 1683, by Fernando de Mendoza y Mate de Luna. "Catamarca" comes from Quechua meaning "fortress on the slope". The city, which had only 8,000 inhabitants in 1882 and was reached by a railway line in 1888, grew very slowly, and the region remained poor even in the middle of the 20th century. This situation was exacerbated by nepotism on the part of the ruling Saadi family, before they lost political power in the 1990s. In spite of this, the province remains still politically unstable, and a large part of its population lives in precarious conditions. The warm semi-arid