If you were up before dawn in southwestern Colombia on Tuesday, September 8, you might have felt the ground shift. The Colombian Geological Service (Servicio Geológico Colombiano, or SGC), the government agency that monitors seismic activity nationwide, reported a magnitude 3.1 earthquake at around 4:32 a.m. local time.
According to the agency’s bulletin, posted on its official account on X, the quake’s epicenter was located roughly 45 kilometers (about 28 miles) offshore from El Charco, a coastal town in the department of Nariño, near Colombia’s border with Ecuador. The tremor originated in the Pacific Ocean at a shallow depth of less than 30 kilometers (about 18.6 miles)—a factor that can make even smaller earthquakes more noticeable to people on land. The SGC pinpointed the location at latitude 2.87 and longitude -78.20.
The agency runs an online tool that lets everyday citizens report whether they felt a given earthquake, helping scientists gauge its real-world impact beyond instrument readings. Based on those reports, people in parts of the region said they did feel the shaking, though only partially, suggesting the quake was mild enough not to cause alarm or damage.
Curious about the technical details or want to see the SGC’s original bulletin? Check out the full story at El Tiempo.
Source: Sismo durante la madrugada de este martes 8 de septiembre: epicentro, profundidad y detalles (eltiempo.com). English version produced with AI assistance.
Image: j-dub1980(THANK YOU FOR 100k+ Views), BY-SA 2.0 (via Openverse).