[Anchor]

The location of this recent earthquake is the Ring of Fire, an area where seismic and volcanic activities are concentrated 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 might be a connection between the two major earthquakes.

Reporter Gwak Sang-eun takes a closer look.

[Reporter]

The starting point of this earthquake was 110 kilometers underground in the Choco Department along the western coast of Colombia.

It belongs to the Circum-Pacific Seismic Belt, where 90 percent of global earthquakes and volcanic activities are concentrated, commonly known as the Ring of Fire.

Experts explain that because this is a boundary where the Nazca Plate, an oceanic plate at the bottom of the Pacific, subducts beneath the South American Plate, accumulated energy is released all at once, triggering powerful seismic waves.

[Rodrigo Alejandro Leon Roya / Seismologist, University of the Andes: Colombia is full of active faults, and the phenomenon of one tectonic plate subducting beneath another continues.]

Although the hypocenter was deep at 110 kilometers underground, the sheer force of a magnitude 7-plus strong earthquake was equivalent to hundreds of atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima in the past, transmitting massive shockwaves to the surface.

[Susan Hough / Geologist, U.S. Geological Survey: About 1.5 million people experienced an estimated shaking of Modified Mercalli Intensity VII, which is strong enough to cause damage.]

Just a month and a half ago, back-to-back strong earthquakes of magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5 struck neighboring Venezuela, killing more than 6,000 people. General analysis suggests that the direct connection between the two earthquakes is not significant, as their epicenters are 1,060 kilometers apart and they occurred at different plate boundaries.

However, it is difficult to completely rule out the possibility that the tectonic forces accumulated by the Venezuelan earthquake stimulated neighboring faults, leading to this latest tremor.

Following the successive strong earthquake damages, Latin American countries such as Chile, Mexico, and El Salvador, along with the United States, have promised rescue and medical assistance, while Venezuela, which has yet to fully recover from its own earthquake damage, also expressed its intent to provide support.

(Video Editing: Cho Mu-hwan, Design: Kang Yun-jung)