Colombia’s Geological Service (SGC) announced on Monday, August 31, that it has detected an unusual pattern of seismic activity in the Chocó region, located on the country’s Pacific coast, following the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck the area on August 10.
According to the agency, the activity doesn’t match the typical pattern of aftershocks that usually follow a major quake. Instead, scientists are describing it as a “seismic swarm”—a cluster of tremors that occur in rapid succession without one dominant main shock driving them, unlike a traditional mainshock-aftershock sequence.
The SGC reported that more than 1,000 seismic events have been recorded in the region since the original earthquake. Combined, these tremors have released an amount of energy equivalent to more than 100 atomic bombs, underscoring the scale of geological stress still being unleashed beneath the region.
Chocó, a heavily forested department bordering both the Pacific Ocean and Panama, sits in a seismically active zone shaped by the collision of the Nazca and South American tectonic plates. Colombian authorities continue to monitor the situation closely, though officials have not indicated whether the swarm poses further risk to nearby communities.
Curious about the science behind seismic swarms and what researchers are watching for next? You can read the full report from El Tiempo for more details.
Image: Dvortygirl, BY-SA 2.0 (via Openverse).