Last Monday we experienced a strong earthquake in Bogota. It lasted for almost three minutes. At an apartment located in a seventh floor felt like an eternity. We were cooking breakfast in the kitchen, when the rocking began, and continued, steady, for several minutes. Huddled beneath a table, we waited quietly for the shaking to subside. Bogotá was spared any serious damage, but the cities closer to the epicenter between the western and central Andean mountain range—Quibdo, Cali, Pereira, and Manizales—were not so fortunate, suffering extensive destruction in the aftermath of a magnitude 7.4 earthquake.
Three years ago I wrote about the unique location of Colombian territory at the north of South America and how it is situated atop an intersection of tectonic plates: the Pacific Ocean’s Nazca Plate, the Caribbean plate, and the South American plate. That is why we have so many quakes. And that is also the reason to have the western Andean mountain range along the west coast. . The earthquake this week has been one of the strongest in recent history, but given its depth of 110 km, the damage was not as catastrophic as it could have been. There are several global initiatives collecting resources and providing humanitarian help to the communities affected by the destruction, including Red Cross, Project Hope, and Global Giving.
Fortunately, this time I have not experienced the “earthquake hangover” that lasted for several weeks in 2023. This could be related to the different position from where I experienced the shake. Three years ago I was sitting and typing on my desk, in front of a computer screen. In contrast, this year I was standing up in the kitchen, moving foods and objects around.
