One month after a powerful magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck western Colombia, the region is still shaking. The quake, centered near San José del Palmar in the Chocó department, hit on August 10 and left more than 300 people dead and roughly 4,000 injured, according to official figures.
The Colombian Geological Service (SGC) has kept a close watch on the area ever since, sending field teams to more than 20 municipalities to assess the damage and track ongoing seismic activity. Freddy Tovar, who coordinates Colombia’s National Seismological Network, reported this week that scientists have now logged over 300 aftershocks tied directly to the original quake. All of them originated at depths greater than 70 kilometers (about 43 miles) below the surface.
But that’s not the whole story. Separately, the SGC has identified a seismic swarm in Chocó — a cluster of smaller, shallower tremors not necessarily linked to the main quake — that has already produced more than 1,200 individual events, all occurring at depths of less than 70 kilometers.
Chocó, a largely rural and forested region along Colombia’s Pacific coast, continues to receive humanitarian aid as recovery efforts continue. To read the full report and see additional photos from the affected areas, check out the original article on El Tiempo’s website.
Source: Un mes después del terremoto en Chocó, la actividad sísmica no se detiene: van 300 réplicas (eltiempo.com). English version produced with AI assistance.
Image: Saadia Malik.