The 1994 Páez River earthquake occurred on June 6 with a
moment magnitude
The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pape ...
of 6.8 at a depth of . The event, which is also known as the Páez River disaster, included subsequent landslides and mudslides that destroyed the small town of
Páez, located on the foothills of the
Central Ranges
Central Ranges (code CER) is an Australian bioregion, with an area of 101,640.44 square kilometres (39,244 sq mi) spreading across two states and one territory: South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory.[Andes
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...]
in
Cauca in south-western
Colombia. It was estimated that 1,100 people, mostly from the
Páez, were killed in some 15 settlements on the
Páez River basin,
Cauca and
Huila departments of which the eponymous town of Páez suffered 50% of the death toll. In response to the disaster, the government created the
Nasa Kiwe Corporation to bring relief to the area, and begin the reconstruction of the affected areas.
See also
*
List of earthquakes in 1994
*
List of earthquakes in Colombia
This is a list of earthquakes in Colombia. Colombia is a seismically active country and has a large seismic risk in many areas of its territory due to its location at the boundaries of the Malpelo, Panama, Caribbean, North Andes (where most ea ...
References and notes
#
Sismo del 6 de junio de 1994 El sismo de Paez de 1994 "(…)A causa del sismo se registraron 20 personas muertas y algunos heridos, cifra nada comparable con la cantidad de víctimas que dejaron las avalanchas, calculada en más de 300 muertos y 500 desaparecidos."
# . Detailed descriptions and photographs of the events, the outcomes, the handling of the emergency and later developments and social consequences can be seen i
Nasa kivethe government corporation for the reconstruction of the Páez River basin.
# . A detailed report with complementary information about this particular disaster and several others that took place around the same time in the
Andean countries can be obtained in a special issue of the journa
Desastres y Sociedad published b
La Red de Estudios Sociales en Prevención de Desastres en América Latinain 1995.
Further reading
*Martinez, J.M., Avila, G., Agudelo, A., Schuster, R.L., Casadevall, T.J., and K.M. Scott, 1995. Landslides and debris flows triggered by the 6 June 1994 Paez earthquake, southwestern Colombia. Landslide News, no. 9:13–15. Kyoto: Japan Landslide Society.
*Schuster, R.L., 1995. Landslides and floods triggered by the June 6, 1994, Paez earthquake, southwestern Colombia. Association of Engineering Geologists, AEG News 38:1:32–33.
External links
Landslides and lahar at Nevado del Huila Volcano, Colombiafrom the
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:1994 Paez River Earthquake
1994 Paez
Paez, 1994
Paez
June 1994 events in South America
Landslides in 1994
1994 disasters in Colombia