The 2008 El Calvario earthquake occurred in central
Colombia on 24 May and measured 5.9 on the
moment magnitude scale
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 ...
. The earthquake occurred at 2:20:43 p.m. (19:20:43 UTC) at the epicenter (
El Calvario,
Meta). The depth was 35 km; it was superficial according to an Ingeominas report. The epicenter was located 35 km from
Villavicencio
Villavicencio () is a city and municipality in Colombia. Capital of Meta Department, it was founded on April 6, 1840. The city had an urban population of approximately 531,275 inhabitants in 2018.https://www.dane.gov.co/files/varios/informacio ...
and 50 km from
Bogotá. There were 11 confirmed fatalities and 4,181 injured, mostly in the towns of
Puente Quetame,
Fosca,
Fomeque and
Guayabetal in
Cundinamarca, and in
El Calvario,
Meta.
A M4 foreshock occurred at 12:08 local time (17:08 UTC) near
San Juanito, in the
Meta Central Department, at a depth of 30 km.
The town of
Quetame
Quetame is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Eastern Province, Cundinamarca, Eastern Province, part of the Departments of Colombia, department of Cundinamarca Department, Cundinamarca. The urban centre of Quetame is located at from the ca ...
,
Cundinamarca was the most affected. Several houses collapsed in this small town of 6,500 inhabitants. The reconstruction of the affected structures cost 10 million
USD
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
(exchange rate
COP 2000). In
Bogotá, a partial collapse of the building of "Lotería de Bogotá" was reported, with no major consequences. The emergency network in the Capital District was put on maximum alert. A collapse of fixed phone lines and cell phones occurred, due to the great number of people calling to find out about their relatives. The quake was also felt in cities as far away as
Medellín and
Bucaramanga
Bucaramanga () is the capital and largest city of the department of Santander, Colombia. Bucaramanga has the fifth-largest economy by GDP in Colombia, has the lowest unemployment rate and has the ninth-largest population in the country, with 6 ...
.
In
Guayabetal,
Cundinamarca, civil defense workers could only reach the town from Villavicencio using motorcycles, because fallen buildings blocked cars from passing. The workers found two people dead and another 26 people trapped in a bus. Now there is a bypass to that point coming from Villavicencio, because 2 km of Highway 48 was closed due to fallen debris.
See also
*
List of earthquakes in 2008
Earthquakes in 2008 resulted in about 88,011 fatalities. The 2008 Sichuan earthquake was the deadliest with 87,587 fatalities, and also the largest at 8.0 on the moment magnitude scale. Other significant earthquakes struck Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, ...
*
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
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:2008 El Calvario Earthquake
El Calvario
Earthquake
An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...
2008 El Calvario
May 2008 events in South America
2008 disasters in Colombia