Magnitude 7.4 Earthquake Strikes Western Colombia
Magnitude 7.4 Earthquake – 5 km S of San José del Palmar, Colombia
A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck western Colombia on August 10, 2026, at a depth of about 110 km. The event, caused by strike-slip faulting within the subducting Nazca plate, is classified as an intermediate-depth earthquake. Such quakes typically produce less intense shaking than shallow ones but are felt over a broader region. This is the largest earthquake in the area since 1950, with previous large events occurring near the coast.
Intermediate-depth earthquakes represent deformation within subducted slabs rather than at the shallow plate interface between subducting and overriding tectonic plates.
- Taek
Was on the 6th floor of a tower. Shaking lasted almost 2 minutes. There was no damage as far as I could tell (Medellín) but they still evacuated everyone to inspect the building. City is in a bit of chaos, people are fine but unsettled, and the comms lines are clogged with people presumably calling their families.
Was a bit tense to see my phone alerts going off over and over, continually increasing the estimate of the earthquake strength, followed by the shaking getting worse.
For people who don't know, those phone alerts give you literally like 5 seconds of heads up. By the time I finished reading the first message, the shaking had already started. And I got the message while I was holding my phone and using it.
- Beijinger
My bed was shaking. I thought the guy in the other room had rough sex. Just realized when I got up, based on the warning message on my phone, that it was an earthquake.
- baristaGeek
Lived it from my 20th floor apartment in Medellin. It was scary af, my wife started crying, but friends and family are OK.
Interesting tech fact: A friend of mine who lives in SF couldn't communicate with his parents who were in the countryside near Pereira (one of the 2 or 3 most devastated cities) because comms were pretty bad, but luckily they had Starlink to be able communicate.
- raybb
Whenever I want to follow what's happening with a natural disaster like this, where many friends and family are potentially affected, I always use the Wikipedia page, which tends to have the most up-to-date information very quickly. It helps me avoid zooming in on the news and seeing rehashed articles posted on multiple websites.
- Gualdrapo
Didn't feel it but apparently it lasted several minutes and there was a lot of panic here in Bogota. Could see lots of people going out of their apartments in pijamas.
Also TIL that in 2023, while in a smaller earthquake webcam streamers (adult entretainers) went out of their apartments in lingerie.