A morning earthquake shook Colombian capital Bogota on Monday, prompting people to evacuate homes and buildings, with the tremor being felt in neighbouring Ecuador and as far away as the border with Venezuela. The Colombian geological service reported that the quake’s epicentre was in Choco province, on the Pacific coast.
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The United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the Colombian agency reported a 7.4 magnitude, while relatively deep. Both reported the epicenter in San Jose del Palmar, about 400 kilometres west of Colombia’s capital, Bogota, at 7:34 am local time on Monday, August 10.
The depth was recorded at 79 km, said the UNGRD, the South American country’s federal agency. The USGS specified the epicentre was 5 km east of of San Jose del Palmar.
Visuals on social media showed buildings cracking and people tripping on the streets.
The temblor follows two back-to-back 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes in Venezuela in late June. Those earthquakes destroyed hundreds of buildings and killed more than 5,000 people.
“We have just experienced a major earthquake in the [province] of Choco. We are concerned about aftershocks,” governor Nubia Carolina Cordoba-Curi said on X.
“Although the epicenter was near San Jose del Palmar, there are injuries and significant damage to buildings in the (provincial) capital, Quibdo. We are already carrying out a damage assessment and will issue the first official report shortly,” he added.
