A seismic hazard model for South America, based on a smoothed (gridded) seismicity model, a subduction model, a crustal fault model, and a ground motion model, has been produced by the U.S. Geological Survey. These models are combined to account for ground shaking from earthquakes on known faults as well as earthquakes on un-modeled faults. Seismicity rates are estimated by counting historical earthquakes in a grid with a cell dimension of 0.1 degrees in latitude and longitude. These gridded earthquake rates are smoothed using a 50 kilometer fixed length smoothing kernel. Separate rate models were developed for the craton and active tectonic regions for earthquake depths between 0 and 50 km. Gridded rates for earthquakes with depths greater than 50 km were done separately.