The shock was centered on the Motagua Fault, about 160 km northeast of Guatemala City at a depth of 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) near the town of Los Amates in the department of Izabal.

[1] The earthquake ruptured a continuous length of 240 km along the Motagua fault and might have extended further to the east and west but was blocked by vegetation and swamps.

[1] Maximum seismic intensity (MMI IX) was located in the Mixco area, some sections of Guatemala City and in Gualán.

[3] Immediately after the earthquake, President Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García invited most of the foreign ambassadors to tour the affected regions by helicopter, which prompted them to quickly ask for help in their home countries.

In 2021 this analog data was digitized and georeferenced in order to build a database to assist in relocating the initial rupture location.