An earthquake of magnitude 4.4 was felt in several municipalities in the Andean and Pacific region of Colombia, during the early hours of this Friday. Users on social networks from cities in the coffee region and capitals such as Cali, Medellín and even some areas of Cundinamarca and Antioquia, reported having felt the tremor.
The Colombian Geological Service (SGC) confirmed that the event occurred around 3:00 am and its epicenter was in Génova, a municipality located south of the department of Quindío. The authorities point out that the earthquake had a shallow depth (less than 30 kilometers), which means that its effects were felt more intensely on the surface. These types of earthquakes tend to cause more shaking and may be more noticeable to people, even if their magnitude is not extremely high.
No damage of any kind has been reported so far. Remember that, as we have already reported on other occasions, it is not possible to predict an earthquake. And in fact, It is absolutely normal for it to tremble with some frequency in the country: According to the SGC, around 2,500 earthquakes occur per month.
The first reason is simple: Colombia is a seismically active country, which has different tectonic plates, which are in contact. “This causes earthquakes to be generated in most of the territory (mainly the coasts and around our mountain ranges),” this entity warned weeks ago.
However, the effects it can cause depends on the relationship between its magnitude and depth. In slightly more specific words, as the SGC explained, “the greater the magnitude and the less depth, the greater the impact there will be.” Although a large number of earthquakes occur, most are not of relevant magnitude or intensity. In fact, in the 30 years that the National Seismological Network has been monitoring seismic activity in the country, in total Almost 300,000 events of this type have been recorded.(Read Scientists, concerned about a disease that 99% of orcas in North America have).
There is also another factor that is important to take into account when talking about earthquakes in Colombia. The country is in “Pacific Ring of Fire”, a 40,000-kilometer-long region in which, the SGC explains, several oceanic plates are sliding beneath Asia and America as both continents approach each other. “This is the most active seismic zone in the world, where the collision of plates It not only produces earthquakes but also volcanic activity. The nearly 40 countries around the Pacific Ocean belong to it, including Colombia,” the SGC noted a few months ago.
Of course, there is a place in Colombia where many more tremors occur: the Bucaramanga Seismic Nest, located in the department of Santander, very close to the municipality of Los Santos. This is a “region where an unusual concentration of seismic activity can be observed more or less continuously.” In fact, in the world, there are only three: Bucaramanga, Vrancea (Romania) and Hindu-Kush (Afghanistan).
