MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Monday, August 10th 2026 - 14:29 UTC
The quake struck at 07:34 local time (12:34 GMT), with its epicenter about five kilometers east of the municipality of San José del Palmar, in Chocó department, some 240 kilometers west of Bogotá
A magnitude 7.4 earthquake shook western and central Colombia on Monday, causing damage in several cities and affecting six airports. It is the strongest earthquake recorded in the country in the past decade, according to the Colombian Geological Service (SGC). No official casualty figures have been released so far.
The quake struck at 07:34 local time (12:34 GMT), with its epicenter about five kilometers east of the municipality of San José del Palmar, in Chocó department, some 240 kilometers west of Bogotá. The SGC initially reported magnitudes of 6.6 and 6.7 before raising the figure to 7.4 in a later bulletin. The focus was located at more than 80 kilometers depth, an intermediate range that explains why the tremor was felt across such a wide area. The agency has recorded two aftershocks, of magnitude 2.8 and 4.8, the second widely felt.
