And size earthquake 3.4 which arrived this October 28 in the municipality of The Saintslocated in the department of Santander, according to information released by the Geological Service of Colombia (SGC).
The earthquake started at 07:05 (local time) and had a depth of 145 kilometers, with a latitude of 6.765833333 and a longitude of -73.1425.
It is worth mentioning that this information published by the SGC is preliminary and may or may not change on the magnitude of the tremor and the exact location of the origin.
In Colombia the earthquake intensity It is measured by the European Macroeconomic Scale (EMS-98), which starts from severity 2, described as “just mean” very few people are at rest; level 3 is classified as “feel light”where some things could swing.
An earthquake is considered intensity 4 when it occurs “widely felt” by many people inside buildings and by few outside. Vibrating windows, doors and dishes. At level 5, “Feeling strong”small objects move, doors or windows swing and small cracks may be recorded in buildings or houses.
Type 6 severity means a “minor damage”in this range some people can lose their balance; Some objects fall and many buildings are slightly damaged. Level 7 occurs when a “moderate damage”That is, heavy furniture can move and many buildings have cracks and coatings can fall from the walls.
Finally, at an intensity above 7, a “great damage”: In this kind of earthquake many people have difficulty standing; heavy objects fall; and weak old structures can collapse.
Considered a country of high seismic risk, Colombia is a country located in the The Pacific Ring of Firea region that hosts 75% of the world’s volcanoes and where around 80% of volcanoes occur. strongest tremors in the world.
Also known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, it consists of the mountainous western area of Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, the United States. and Canada, to then turn around the Aleutian Islands and go down the coasts and islands of Russia, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, East Timor, Brunei, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands , Tonga, Tuvalu and New Zealand.
In the specific case of Colombia, the country is located in two important subduction zones, because on the one hand the Nazca plate with the South America and this last one also collides with the Plate in the Caribbean Seawhich always causes trembling.
Because of this situation, the departments of Nariño, Choco, Caldas and Santander are the places that experience the most tremors; In the second is the municipality of Los Santos, which is the second the most seismic area in the world.
Ecuador-Colombia of 1868
Two earthquakes occurred in the border area of Ecuador and Colombia on August 15 and 16, 1868, with magnitudes of 6.3 and 6.7, the latter being the most deadly with a duration of nearly a minute of movement.
The first of them was recorded in the towns of El Ángel and La Concepción; and the second earthquake left the city of Ibarra in Ecuador completely destroyed. It is believed that this movement caused about 70 thousand victims, counting deaths and injuries in both countries.
Cucuta earthquake of 1875
Also known as the Andes Earthquake, this earthquake occurred on May 18, 1875 and had a magnitude of between 7.5 and 8.5 in Cucuta, although it also had consequences in the neighboring Venezuelan state of Táchira.
Although some claim that the number of victims of this earthquake reached 3,000, at least in the affected area in Colombia only 461 bodies were found. From this earthquake, hot springs also emerged from the sites known today as “Agua Hedionda”, “El Tampaco” and “Aguas Calientes”.
1906 earthquake and tsunami
An earthquake of magnitude 8.8 hit the province of Esmeralda in Ecuador, on the border with Colombia, on January 31. This movement generated a tsunami that left 1,500 dead. According to information from the SGC, the waves reached five meters in height and covered the Colombian region of Tumaco.
1994 Páez earthquake
The earthquake struck the foothills of the Central Andes Mountains in Cauca, in southwestern Colombia, on June 6, 1994. It had a magnitude of 6.4 and left about 800 people dead, mostly residents of settlements near the Páez River. . This is considered the second deadliest in the country’s history.
Axis Coffee 1999
Considered the worst earthquake in the country’s recent history, this earthquake affected the departments of Quindío and Risaralda in Colombia, leaving more than a thousand people dead.
The earthquake occurred on January 25, 1999 and had a magnitude of 6.2. Several hospitals were affected and the resources to deal with the emergency were limited. The earthquake left four thousand people injured and almost 500 missing.
About eight thousand coffee farms were completely or partially destroyed, and 13 thousand structures of many types of companies and industries were affected.