With a difference of eight minutes, two new tremors moved Colombia this morning.
Due to their low intensity, great depth and the time they occurred, they were imperceptible to the majority of the inhabitants where they were recorded.
The National Geological Service reported that at 4:16 am a first telluric movement occurred that with a magnitude of 3.0 on the Richter scale and a depth of 11 km had as its epicenter the capital of Nariño: Pasto.
Exactly eight minutes later, at 4:24 am and hundreds of kilometers from that city, another tremor was recorded, this time in Mesa de Los Santos (Santander), the country’s traditional seismic nest.
Its magnitude was 3.8 degrees and the depth was 150 km.
The website of the National Geological Service recalled that Colombia is a country of earthquakes and that the moreIf we are aware of this, we can better prepare ourselves.
For this he advises:
1. Colombia is a very seismically active country, since there are different tectonic plates that are in contact and this causes earthquakes to be generated in most of the territory.
2. The most seismically active parts of the country are the coasts and around our mountain ranges.
3. There is a place where earthquakes occur almost every day and represents 60% of the seismicity that occurs in Colombia: the Bucaramanga Seismic Nest, located in the department of Santander, near the municipality of Los Santos.
4. On average, there are 2,500 earthquakes per month in the country, but most are not of significant magnitude or intensity. Many of them we don’t even feel them!
5. In the 30 years that the National Seismological Network of Colombia has been monitoring seismic activity in the country, almost 300,000 events of this type have been recorded.
6. Where a large earthquake has already occurred, it is very likely that it will occur again in the future. That is why it is so essential that we keep in mind the seismic history of our country and our regions.
7. Aftershocks (seismic movements after an earthquake, of a magnitude less than this and that occur in the same region) generally occur in superficial earthquakes, which are generated less than 30 km from the ground.
8. The effects that an earthquake can have on the infrastructure of a place and, therefore, on people, depends, among other things, on the relationship between its magnitude and depth. The greater the magnitude and the less depth, the greater the impact there will be.
9. The deeper an earthquake is, the more its energy can spread in the territory.
10. There is still no scientifically proven method to predict earthquakes. For this reason, we must prepare ourselves to minimize its impacts and having earthquake-resistant constructions is the best way to do it.