epicenter, magnitude and affected areas

During the afternoon of this Thursday, May 2, The department of Cundinamarca was hit by an earthquake that was presented in the municipality of Lenguazaque and It was registered by the Colombian Geological Service. It should be remembered that Colombia It is one of the countries on the continent that has with a greater number of telluric movements due to its geolocationwhich is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire.

For this occasion and as mentioned above, Lenguazaque was the affected municipality, which had an earthquake at 2:52 in the afternoon, with a magnitude recorded by the SGC of 3.2 at a depth of 150 kilometers. According to the entity, the municipalities close to the epicenter were Cucunbá, 9km away, and Chocontá, 12km away. According to different comments and tweets from users on social network X, it was also felt in Quindío.

Do you know the difference between a deep earthquake and a superficial one? We tell you

At Caracol Radio we spoke with Professor Bodgan Nitescu, Geologist and professor at the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Los Andes, on the topic of the depth of the tremors, to know well what this means. and if it is a risk factor when evaluating a movement of this type.

Initially, he explained that earthquakes They are transmissions of mechanical energy that propagate from the hypocenter to the Earth’s surface. “So, the propagation will use a medium that is the solid (of the rocks), within the crust, and this propagation is done with a loss of energy or dissipation.”

Furthermore, he added: “Earthquakes with deeper hypocenters are farther from the Earth’s surfacethen there is a greater distance to reach the surface and the waves will lose more energy, for this reason earthquakes generated near the Earth’s surface can be and “In general, they are more dangerous and harmful, since they do not have sufficient energy dissipation.”