[Anchor]
The site of this latest earthquake is the Ring of Fire, a region notorious for concentrated seismic and volcanic activity worldwide. Notably, this comes just over a month after a powerful earthquake claimed thousands of lives in neighboring Venezuela. Attention is now focused on whether there is any connection between the two major earthquakes.
Reporter Gwak Sang-eun takes a closer look.
[Reporter]
The origin of this earthquake is located 110 kilometers underground in the Choco Department along the western coast of Colombia.
It lies within the Circum-Pacific Seismic Belt, where 90 percent of the world's earthquakes and volcanic activities are concentrated, the so-called "Ring of Fire."
Experts explain that because this is a boundary where the oceanic Nazca Plate subducts beneath the continental South American Plate, accumulated energy erupted all at once, generating powerful seismic waves.
[Rodrigo Alejandro Leon Roya / Seismologist, University of the Andes : Colombia is full of active faults, and the subduction of one tectonic plate beneath another is ongoing.]
Although the hypocenter was deep at 110 kilometers underground, the magnitude 7-plus strong earthquake had a force equivalent to hundreds of atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima in the past, transmitting massive shocks to the surface.
[Susan Hough / Seologist, U.S. Geological Survey : About 1.5 million people experienced estimated shaking of intensity 7, which is strong enough to cause damage.]
Just a month and a half ago, consecutive strong earthquakes of magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5 struck neighboring Venezuela, killing more than 6,000 people. However, the prevailing analysis is that direct connectivity between the two is unlikely, as their epicenters are 1,060 kilometers apart and they occurred on different plate boundaries.
Still, it is difficult to completely rule out the possibility that the tectonic forces accumulated by the Venezuelan earthquake stimulated other surrounding faults, leading to this event.
Amid the successive earthquake damages, Latin American countries including Chile, Mexico, and El Salvador, along with the United States, have promised rescue and medical support, while Venezuela, which has yet to recover from its own earthquake damage, also expressed its willingness to provide aid.
(Video Editing: Cho Mu-hwan, Design: Kang Yun-jung)
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