1958 Ecuador-Colombia earthquake
Encyclopedia
At 9:09 local time on January 19, 1958, a strong magnitude
7.6 Ms earthquake
struck the coastal regions of Ecuador
and Colombia
. Approximately 30 percent of Esmeraldas
(Ecuador) was destroyed, including the children's department of the hospital, where three children died. In all, 111 persons died and 45 were injured as a result of the earthquake. Water mains were broken and power transmission lines were damaged. The Esmeraldas-Quito
highway collapsed at many places. Many other roads of the country were made impassable by cracks and fallen trees. According to press reports, a landslide
from the slopes of the Andes
at Panado village buried a hundred people. The earthquake was destructive in the cities on the northern coast of the country and was strong from Latacunga
to Quito, Ibarra
and Tulcán
. It was felt at Guayaquil
.
where the Nazca Plate
is being subducted
beneath the South American Plate
. The convergence rate is 55 mm per year and the subduction is significantly oblique to the boundary. This part of the plate boundary has been the location of a series of large historical earthquakes, including the Mw=8.8 1906 Ecuador-Colombia earthquake
, which ruptured 5–600 km of the plate interface. Since 1906 there have been three major earthquakes that together have re-ruptured this same segment, in 1942, 1958 and 1979.
suffered most of all. Several old residences and a wooden home for railway workers collapsed. The large brick ovens used for drying pulp collapsed at the sawmill
s. The brick wall of the new church cracked. The walls of a number of other buildings cracked. The rafters of the roof of the tide gauge
box set up at the end of the breakwater
(on Del Morro Island) came out of their grooves, the roof collapsed and carried the instrument and the box with it into the water. Pile wooden homes rocked so strongly in a north-south direction, that 8 cm gaps appeared in the ground at the foundations. The corrugated roof of the lower shed was bent in by the collision of two adjacent sheds. The embankments connecting Tumaco Island with adjacent islands crumbled and cracked. Bottles, vases, dishes, cameras, typewriters, etc. fell and broke. Water splashed out of tubs. The telegraph link between Tumaco and La Espriella was out of commission for 24 hours because of fallen posts. A resident of the city was injured. Eyewitnesses between Tumaco and Esmeraldas found it difficult to remain standing. Water gushed out of cracks in the ground on Manglares Cape, and trees fell.
The earthquake was strong at Pasto
, Ipiales, Imuesa, Tuquerres
and Sapuyas; it lasted about 40 minutes, but did not cause material damage. At Cali
and Pereira
, the population was frightened. At Bogotá
, the pendulums stopped on the clocks at the seismic station.
Many recurrent shocks were felt at the epicentral zone; the two strongest occurred on January 19 at 9:45 and on February 1. According to geodesic data, the breakwater at Tumaco was shifted 1 cm along the vertical by the earthquake.
The earthquake gave rise to a tsunami
. A launch almost sank at Esmeraldas; four customs officers died. The waves damaged Tumaco and Guayaquil.
Surface wave magnitude
The surface wave magnitude scale is one of the magnitude scales used in seismology to describe the size of an earthquake. It is based on measurements in Rayleigh surface waves that travel primarily along the uppermost layers of the earth...
7.6 Ms earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
struck the coastal regions of Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
and Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
. Approximately 30 percent of Esmeraldas
Esmeraldas, Ecuador
Esmeraldas is a coastal city in northwestern Ecuador. It is the seat of the Esmeraldas Canton and the capital of the Esmeraldas Province. It has an international sea port and a small airport ....
(Ecuador) was destroyed, including the children's department of the hospital, where three children died. In all, 111 persons died and 45 were injured as a result of the earthquake. Water mains were broken and power transmission lines were damaged. The Esmeraldas-Quito
Quito
San Francisco de Quito, most often called Quito , is the capital city of Ecuador in northwestern South America. It is located in north-central Ecuador in the Guayllabamba river basin, on the eastern slopes of Pichincha, an active stratovolcano in the Andes mountains...
highway collapsed at many places. Many other roads of the country were made impassable by cracks and fallen trees. According to press reports, a landslide
Landslide
A landslide or landslip is a geological phenomenon which includes a wide range of ground movement, such as rockfalls, deep failure of slopes and shallow debris flows, which can occur in offshore, coastal and onshore environments...
from the slopes of the Andes
Andes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
at Panado village buried a hundred people. The earthquake was destructive in the cities on the northern coast of the country and was strong from Latacunga
Latacunga
Latacunga is a plateau town of Ecuador, capital of the Cotopaxi Province, south of Quito, near the confluence of the Alaques and Cutuchi rivers to form the Patate, the headstream of the Pastaza. At the time of census 2001 Latacunga had 51,689 inhabitants, largely mestizo and indigenous.Latacunga...
to Quito, Ibarra
Ibarra, Ecuador
Ibarra is a city in northern Ecuador and the capital of the Imbabura Province. It lies at the foot of the Imbabura Volcano and on the left bank of the Tahuando river. It is about northeast of Ecuador's capital Quito....
and Tulcán
Tulcán
Tulcán is the capital of the province of Carchi in Ecuador. The population of Tulcán is approximately 83,000. Tulcán is known for its hot springs, deep wells, and a topiary garden cemetery created by José Franco...
. It was felt at Guayaquil
Guayaquil
Guayaquil , officially Santiago de Guayaquil , is the largest and the most populous city in Ecuador,with about 2.3 million inhabitants in the city and nearly 3.1 million in the metropolitan area, as well as that nation's main port...
.
Tectonic setting
Ecuador and Colombia lie above a convergent boundaryConvergent boundary
In plate tectonics, a convergent boundary, also known as a destructive plate boundary , is an actively deforming region where two tectonic plates or fragments of lithosphere move toward one another and collide...
where the Nazca Plate
Nazca Plate
]The Nazca Plate, named after the Nazca region of southern Peru, is an oceanic tectonic plate in the eastern Pacific Ocean basin off the west coast of South America. The ongoing subduction along the Peru-Chile Trench of the Nazca Plate under the South American Plate is largely responsible for the...
is being subducted
Subduction
In geology, subduction is the process that takes place at convergent boundaries by which one tectonic plate moves under another tectonic plate, sinking into the Earth's mantle, as the plates converge. These 3D regions of mantle downwellings are known as "Subduction Zones"...
beneath the South American Plate
South American Plate
The South American Plate is a continental tectonic plate which includes the continent of South America and also a sizeable region of the Atlantic Ocean seabed extending eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge....
. The convergence rate is 55 mm per year and the subduction is significantly oblique to the boundary. This part of the plate boundary has been the location of a series of large historical earthquakes, including the Mw=8.8 1906 Ecuador-Colombia earthquake
1906 Ecuador-Colombia earthquake
The 1906 Ecuador-Colombia earthquake occurred at 15:36 UTC on January 31, off the coast of Ecuador, near Esmeraldas. The earthquake had a magnitude of 8.8 and triggered a destructive tsunami that caused at least 500 casualties on the coast of Colombia....
, which ruptured 5–600 km of the plate interface. Since 1906 there have been three major earthquakes that together have re-ruptured this same segment, in 1942, 1958 and 1979.
Damage
In Colombia, TumacoTumaco
Tumaco is a port city and municipality in the Nariño Department, Colombia, by the Pacific Ocean. It is located on the southwestern of Colombia, near to border with Ecuador, and enjoys of hot tropical climate...
suffered most of all. Several old residences and a wooden home for railway workers collapsed. The large brick ovens used for drying pulp collapsed at the sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
s. The brick wall of the new church cracked. The walls of a number of other buildings cracked. The rafters of the roof of the tide gauge
Tide gauge
A tide gauge is a device for measuring sea level and detecting tsunamis.Sensors continuously record the height of the water level with respect to a height reference surface close to the geoid...
box set up at the end of the breakwater
Breakwater (structure)
Breakwaters are structures constructed on coasts as part of coastal defence or to protect an anchorage from the effects of weather and longshore drift.-Purposes of breakwaters:...
(on Del Morro Island) came out of their grooves, the roof collapsed and carried the instrument and the box with it into the water. Pile wooden homes rocked so strongly in a north-south direction, that 8 cm gaps appeared in the ground at the foundations. The corrugated roof of the lower shed was bent in by the collision of two adjacent sheds. The embankments connecting Tumaco Island with adjacent islands crumbled and cracked. Bottles, vases, dishes, cameras, typewriters, etc. fell and broke. Water splashed out of tubs. The telegraph link between Tumaco and La Espriella was out of commission for 24 hours because of fallen posts. A resident of the city was injured. Eyewitnesses between Tumaco and Esmeraldas found it difficult to remain standing. Water gushed out of cracks in the ground on Manglares Cape, and trees fell.
The earthquake was strong at Pasto
Pasto
Pasto, officially San Juan de Pasto, is the capital of the department of Nariño, located in southwest Colombia. The city is located in the "Atriz Valley", on the Andes cordillera, at the foot of the Galeras volcano, at an altitude of 8,290 feet above sea level...
, Ipiales, Imuesa, Tuquerres
Tuquerres
Túquerres is a town and municipality in the Nariño Department, Colombia....
and Sapuyas; it lasted about 40 minutes, but did not cause material damage. At Cali
Calì
Calì, also written in English as Cali, is an Italian surname, widespread mainly in the Ionian side of Sicily.For the surname Calì is assumed the origin of the Greek word kalos , or from its Sanskrit root kali, "time."The surname refers to:...
and Pereira
Pereira, Colombia
Pereira is the capital city of the Colombian department of Risaralda. It stands in the center of the western region of the country, located in a small valley that descends from a part of the western Andes mountain chain. Its strategic location in the coffee producing area makes the city an urban...
, the population was frightened. At Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
, the pendulums stopped on the clocks at the seismic station.
Many recurrent shocks were felt at the epicentral zone; the two strongest occurred on January 19 at 9:45 and on February 1. According to geodesic data, the breakwater at Tumaco was shifted 1 cm along the vertical by the earthquake.
The earthquake gave rise to a tsunami
Tsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
. A launch almost sank at Esmeraldas; four customs officers died. The waves damaged Tumaco and Guayaquil.