The 1875 Cúcuta earthquake (also known as earthquake of the Andes) occurred on 18 May at 11:15 AM. It completely demolished

Cúcuta Cúcuta (), officially San José de Cúcuta, is a Colombian municipality, capital of the department of Norte de Santander and nucleus of the Metropolitan Area of Cúcuta. The city is located in the homonymous valley, at the foot of the Eastern ...

, Villa del Rosario (

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

), San Antonio del Tachira and

Capacho La Coronilla is a village in the Rocha Department of southeastern Uruguay. Location The village is located on the Atlantic coast on Route 9, about south of Chuy and the border with Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federat ...

(

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

). The earthquake killed many Venezuelans in San Cristóbal, La Mulata, Rubio,

Michelena Michelena is a town in Táchira state, Venezuela. It was founded in 1849 by José Amando Pérez. It has a population of 22.500. *Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, also known as Carlos the Jackal, currently serving life sentence in France for killing thre ...

La Grita La Grita is a town in the north west of Táchira state, Venezuela. It has a population of 80.000. Located in an Andean valley, La Grita has a beautiful natural setting and fertile land. The town includes colonial style houses and open plazas. The ...

, Colón, amongst others, and was felt in both

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

and

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

. That day, the city of

and the town of Villa del Rosario, in the

Norte de Santander North Santander (Spanish: Norte de Santander) () is a department of Northeastern Colombia. It is in the north of the country, bordering Venezuela. Its capital is Cúcuta, one of the country's major cities. North Santander is bordered by Venez ...

department (Colombia) and the municipalities of

San Antonio del Táchira San Antonio del Táchira is a city in the Venezuelan Andean state of Táchira. The busy highway across the Simón Bolívar International Bridge linking the cities of Cúcuta, Colombia, and San Cristóbal, Venezuela, passes through San Antonio d ...

and

Táchira State Táchira State ( es, Estado Táchira, ) is one of the 24 states of Venezuela. The state capital is San Cristóbal. Táchira State covers a total surface area of and as of the 2011 census, had a population of 1,168,908. At the end of the 19t ...

(Venezuela) were destroyed totally by this catastrophic earthquake. Villa del Rosario was a historical and calm population. In 1821 had met in the main church (

Historic church History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

) to means to construct, the members of the First Congress of the Great Colombia, known as

Congress of Cúcuta The Congress of Cúcuta was a constituent assembly where the Republic of Colombia (historiographically called Gran Colombia because it covered the territories of the previous viceroyalty of Nueva Granada and Venezuela, which are several nations ...

. Still it is observed the rest of the church that collapse during the great seismic movement, the houses of that time in the zone were of the purest Spanish colonial style.

Death toll

The exact number of victims is not known; ''

Spokane Daily Chronicle The ''Spokane Daily Chronicle'' is a daily digital newspaper in Spokane, Washington. It was founded as a weekly paper in 1881 and grew into an afternoon daily, competing with ''The Spokesman-Review'', which was formed from the merger of two comp ...

'' reported that the figure was as many as 2,500, while other sources say that the death toll was about 1,000. Early newspaper reports put the number at 8 to 10,000. The '' Evening Post'' wrote that 5,000 died outright with a further 9,000 dying from the after effects such as

fever Fever, also referred to as pyrexia, is defined as having a body temperature, temperature above the human body temperature, normal range due to an increase in the body's temperature Human body temperature#Fever, set point. There is not a single ...

and lockjaw.

Affected areas

The earthquake covered 5 degrees of

Latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...

and was 500 miles long. Populated areas affected were, Villa of the Rosary, San Luis, Salazar, Woods of the Palms,

Gramalote Gramalote is a Colombian municipality and town located in the Departments of Colombia, department of North Santander. Currently, the complete destruction of the town is considered imminent due to massive mudslides brought about by unprecedented f ...

Bochalema Bochalema is a Colombian municipality and town located in the department of North Santander North Santander (Spanish: Norte de Santander) () is a departments of Colombia, department of Northeastern Colombia. It is in the north of the country, ...

and San Faustino in

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

, San Cristóbal, the

Mulata (, ) is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese is ...

, Rubio,

, Colón in

. In addition it was also felt in Bogota and

Death toll

Affected areas

See also

References

Further reading