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 East ...

, Villa del Rosario (

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

), San Antonio del Tachira and

Capacho La Coronilla is a village in the Rocha Department of southeastern Uruguay. Geography The village is located on the Atlantic coast on Route 9, about south of Chuy and the border with Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of ...

(

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

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

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. ...

, 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 Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...

and

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (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 northern p ...

. That day, the city of

and the town of Villa del Rosario, in the

Norte de Santander Norte de Santander (Spanish for Northern 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. Norte de Santander is bordere ...

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 ...

and

Táchira State Táchira State (, ) is one of the 23 States of Venezuela, states of Venezuela. The state capital is San Cristóbal, Táchira, San Cristóbal. Táchira State covers a total surface area of and as of the 2011 census, had a population of 1,168,9 ...

(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) 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.

Geology

The earthquake occurred in the

Mérida Andes Mérida or Merida may refer to: Places *Mérida (state), one of the 23 states which make up Venezuela *Mérida, Mérida, the capital city of the state of Mérida, Venezuela *Merida, Leyte, Philippines, a municipality in the province of Leyte *M� ...

and scientists proposed it was associated with rupture on the Aguas Calientes Fault System or faults in the Cucuta graben. The Aguas Calientes Fault System is a northwestern extension of the

Boconó Fault The Boconó Fault is a complex of geological faults located in the Eastern Ranges of northeastern Colombia and the Mérida Andes of northwestern Venezuela. The fault has a NE-SW orientation; it is a strike-slip fault In geology, a fault is a ...

Paleoseismic Paleoseismology is the study of ancient earthquakes using geologic evidence, such as geologic sediments and rocks. It is used to supplement seismic monitoring to calculate seismic hazard. Paleoseismology is usually restricted to geologic regim ...

studies of the Aguas Calientes Fault System at the presumed earthquake epicenter revealed evidence of recent

surface rupture In seismology, surface rupture (or ground rupture, or ground displacement) is the visible offset of the ground surface when an earthquake rupture along a Fault (geology), fault affects the Earth's surface. Surface rupture is opposed by buried rup ...

. The central part of the Aguas Calientes Fault System was the likely source of the event. Its moment magnitude is estimated at 6.75.

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 com ...

'' 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 ''Evening Post'' or ''The Evening Post'' may refer to the following newspapers: United Kingdom * ''Evening Post'' (London) (1710–1732), then ''Berington's Evening Post'' (1732–1740) * ''London Evening Post'' (1727–1797) * '' ...

'' wrote that 5,000 died outright with a further 9,000 dying from the after effects such as

fever Fever or pyrexia in humans is a symptom of an anti-infection defense mechanism that appears with Human body temperature, body temperature exceeding the normal range caused by an increase in the body's temperature Human body temperature#Fever, s ...

and lockjaw.

Affected areas

The earthquake covered 5 degrees of

Latitude In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate system, geographic 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 t ...

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 department of North Santander Norte de Santander (Spanish for Northern Santander) () is a department of northeastern Colombia. It is in the north of the country, bordering Venez ...

, Bochalema and San Faustino in

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

, San Cristóbal, the Mulata, Rubio, Michelena,

, Colón in

. In addition it was also felt in

and

Geology

Death toll

Affected areas

See also

References

Further reading