Data from a GPS network in Colombia have revealed a shallow and fully locked part on the Caribbean subduction zone in the country that suggests a possible large earthquake and tsunami risk for the northwest region.
Data from a GPS network in Colombia have revealed a shallow and fully locked part on the Caribbean subduction zone in the country that suggests a possible large earthquake and tsunami risk for the northwest region.
The locked patch south of Cartagena city is capable of generating a magnitude 8.0 earthquake every 600 years, said Sindy Lizarazo of Nagoya University in Japan, who presented the study at the Seismological Society of America (SSA)’s 2021 Annual Meeting.
Colombia lies in the middle of a complex tectonic zone, where the Caribbean, Nazca and South American tectonic plates and other smaller tectonic blocks converge. The Caribbean plate is very slowly converging with the northern part of Colombia—moving at 7 millimeters per year—which may in part be the reason for the long time between large earthquakes in northwest Colombia.
“The only recent historical record of a disastrous [magnitude 6.4] earthquake in the Colombian Caribbean region was on May 22, 1834 close to Santa Marta,” said Lizarazo. “However, there is no seismic event that meets the magnitude estimated by our study, nor tsunamis in the historical record on the northern part of Colombia.”
Read more at Seismological Society of America
Photo Credit: Tumisu via Pixabay
