The Colombian National Geological Service recorded a Magnitude 6.1 Earthquake at a depth of 30.0 km, beneath the town of El Calvario in Meta Department, about 90 km to the northeast of Bogatá, slightly before 12.05 pm local time on Thursday 27 August 2023 (slightly after 5.05 pm GMT). There are no reports of any damage associated with this event, though a woman is reported to have died while trying to evacuate a 10 story building in Bogatá.
Colombia is on the west coast of South America and the western margin of the South American Plate, close to where the Nazca Plate, which underlies part of the east Pacific, is being subducted along the Peru-Chile Trench. The Nazca Plate passes under the South American Plate as it sinks into the Earth, this is not a smooth process and the plates repeatedly stick together then break apart as the pressure builds up, causing Earthquakes. As the Nazca Plate sinks further it is partially melted by the friction and the heat of the Earth's interior. Some of this melted material then rises through the overlying South American Plate, fuelling the volcanoes of Colombia and neighbouring countries.
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