Overview
A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck western Colombia at 7:34 a.m. local time on Monday, Aug. 10, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The epicenter was located about 5 km south of San José del Palmar, a town in the Chocó department roughly 250 miles west of Bogotá, at a depth of approximately 110 km. The earthquake originated within the subducting Nazca plate, which dives beneath the South American plate along Colombia's Pacific margin, a segment of the seismically active Ring of Fire.
The considerable depth of the rupture shaped how the earthquake was felt. Intermediate-depth events of this kind spread shaking across a very wide area while moderating the most violent ground motion near the epicenter. Shaking was felt across nearly all of Colombia and into Ecuador and Venezuela, with residents evacuating buildings in Bogotá and Quito. The USGS ShakeMap recorded maximum intensities near VII (very strong), and the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System estimates roughly 1.5 million people were exposed to shaking of that level or greater. A magnitude 5.0 aftershock struck the same area about 45 minutes later at a depth of 98 km, and additional aftershocks remain possible in the coming days.
Damage concentrated in the coffee axis and Cali
Early reports indicate the heaviest damage in the cities of Colombia's coffee-growing region and the Cauca Valley. Authorities and local media reported collapsed and damaged buildings in Pereira and Manizales, structural damage and a partial collapse at a major hospital in Cali, and damage reports at six airports in the region. The governor of Chocó described significant damage in communities near the epicenter, where infrastructure is limited and access is difficult. Colombia's disaster risk management agency has activated its emergency protocols, and damage assessments are ongoing.
The USGS Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response, known as PAGER, issued an Orange alert for this event, indicating that significant economic losses are likely and that a regional or national response may be required. The region has a long seismic history: the magnitude 6.2 Armenia earthquake of January 1999, which struck the same coffee axis at a much shallower depth, remains one of the most damaging earthquakes in Colombia's history and prompted a major rebuilding of the region's seismic codes. Monday's event was far larger in magnitude but much deeper, which is likely to limit, though not eliminate, severe structural damage.
What this means for insurers
Cotality's review of the USGS ShakeMap indicates that the most severe ground motions were largely confined to the remote epicentral region, while shaking intensity remained low across the highly populated areas where the bulk of the industry's insured exposure is concentrated. Based on initial qualitative assessments and historical regional analogs, Cotality expects overall industry insured losses to be moderate, likely in the low hundreds of millions of dollars, reflecting both the shaking footprint and historically low commercial and residential insurance penetration in the epicentral region.
"This was a very large earthquake, but its depth and location worked to limit the damage," said Cotality VP of insurance market insights, Maiclaire Bolton Smith. "The rupture occurred roughly 110 km beneath a remote part of the Chocó region, which spread the shaking across a wide area while sparing the major population centers the most violent ground motion. The damage we are seeing in cities like Pereira, Manizales, and Cali is meaningful, but insured losses should remain moderate given how little of the exposure near the epicenter is insured."
Cotality will continue monitoring this event and may provide updates when available.
