M 6.3 in Colombia on 17 Aug 2023 17:04 UTC

Event summary

This earthquake can have a low humanitarian impact based on the magnitude and the affected population and their vulnerability.

GDACS ID EQ 1387436
Earthquake Magnitude: 6.3M
Glide number: EQ-2023-000145-COL
Depth: 10 Km
Lat/Lon: 4.4177 , -73.5111
Event Date: 17 Aug 2023 17:04 UTC
17 Aug 2023 12:04 Local
Exposed Population: 10 thousand (in MMI>=VII)
Inserted at: 17 Aug 2023 17:25 UTC
INFORM Coping capacity:
4 (Colombia)

GDACS Score

For more info on GDACS alert score click here.
  Earthquake
(Shakemap)		 GDACS score
NEIC 1.5 0.9
us7000kp2i Scaled population (raster) 4.49  
  C1 shakemap -0.59  
  C2 shakemap 0.53  
  Country Vulnerability 0  
  INFORM_normalised 0.87  
Maximum expected impact using different data sources.
Virtual OSOCC
Meteo assessment
Satellite products
Analytical products
Colombia - Earthquakes (ECHO 18 Aug 2023)Fri, 18 Aug 2023 09:23

  • A strong earthquake of 6.3M at a depth of 10 km occurred in central Colombia on 17 August at 17:04 UTC (12:04 local time). The epicentre was located approximately 33 km north-east of Villavicencio City (Meta Department, central Colombia) and 65 km north-east of Bogota City.
  • A strong aftershock of 5.7M and two more aftershocks have been recorded in several municipalities in Meta Department.
  • USGS PAGER estimates that up to 404,000 people were exposed to very strong shaking and 194,000 people to strong shacking.
  • According to National Authorities and media reports, El Calvario Municipality (Meta Department) have been initially evacuated and a landslide has been reported in Villavicencio. The National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) ordered the closure of Villavicencio - Bogota road. Minor damages have been reported to buildings an no impact to people.
Detailed event map. European Union, 2026. Map produced by EC-JRC.
The boundaries and the names shown on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the European Union.

Updates on volcanic activity (Smithsonian)

Latest media headlines

How to activate the Google earthquake alert? Steps for installation on.. 8/21/2023 4:32:00 PM.

According to the report of the Colombian Geological Service (SGC) , the epicenter of the most powerful earthquake was located in the municipality of El Calvario (Meta), with a magnitude of 6.1 and a superficial depth of less than 30 kilomet
...(more)
Natural Hazards Monitoring - 21 August 2023 8/21/2023 3:43:00 PM.

Severe weather. Guatemala (Update) On 18 August 2023, the Guatemala National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (CONRED per its acronym in Spanish) published an update on the rainy season in the country. There have been 618 severe rain weat
...(more)

View more news

Estimated casualties (PAGER)

USGS estimates the number of casualties for each earthquake for the Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) product.
The graph shows the current fatalities estimate.

Exposed population

Data, images, links, services and documents

For this events, GDACS has links to information from the following sources: EC-JRC (48), NEIC (4), OCHA (1), DesInventar (1), WMO (1), USGS (5), (2), INFORM (2),