Moderate mag. 5.0 earthquake - North Pacific Ocean, 71 km southwest of Tumaco, Narino, Colombia, on Wednesday, 12 December 1979 at 12:03 (GMT)

Moderate mag. 5.0 earthquake - North Pacific Ocean, 71 km southwest of Tumaco, Narino, Colombia, on Wednesday, 12 December 1979 at 12:03 (GMT)

Moderate magnitude 5.0 earthquake at 33 km depth

Date & time: 12 Dec 1979 12:03:45 UTC
Magnitude: 5
Depth: 33.0 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 1.542°N / 79.377°W (North Pacific Ocean, Colombia)
Nearest volcano: Pilavo (159 km / 99 mi)
Nearby towns and cities:
67 km (41 mi) WNW of San Lorenzo de Esmeraldas (San Lorenzo, Ecuador) (pop: 20,200) --> See nearby quakes!
71 km (44 mi) WSW of Tumaco (pop: 86,700) --> See nearby quakes!
96 km (60 mi) SW of Francisco Pizarro (pop: 6,110) --> See nearby quakes!
175 km (109 mi) SW of El Charco (pop: 28,700) --> See nearby quakes!
219 km (136 mi) NNW of San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador) (pop: 1,399,800) --> See nearby quakes!
236 km (147 mi) W of Pasto (pop: 382,200) --> See nearby quakes!
323 km (201 mi) WSW of Popayan (pop: 258,700) --> See nearby quakes!
370 km (230 mi) NNW of Puyo (Pastaza, Ecuador) (pop: 24,900) --> See nearby quakes!
381 km (237 mi) SW of Santiago de Cali (pop: 2,392,900) --> See nearby quakes!
680 km (422 mi) WSW of Santafe de Bogota (pop: 7,674,400) --> See nearby quakes!
Primary data source: USGS (United States Geological Survey)
Estimated released energy: 2 x 1012 joules (554 megawatt hours, equivalent to 477 tons of TNT) More info
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Data for the same earthquake reported by different agencies

Info: The more agencies report about the same quake and post similar data, the more confidence you can have in the data. It takes normally up to a few hours until earthquake parameters are calculated with near-optimum precision.
MagnitudeDepthLocationSource
M 5.033 kmnear the coast of Ecuador (Colombia)USGS
Note: for quakes of 2012 and earlier, our database often contains only records from USGS.

User reports for this quake

User reports estimate the perceived ground shaking intensity according to the MMI (Modified Mercalli Intensity) scale.
There are no user reports for this quake yet. If you felt it be the first to report it!
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Aftershocks

More info
Recorded aftershocks, latest first (3 quakes):
  • 14 Dec 1979 04:57 UTC
    | M 3.9 |
    33 km (20.5 mi) depth
    |
    9 km (5 mi) distance
    | USGS | Details
  • 01 Jan 1970 00:00 UTC
    | M |
    0 km (0 mi) depth
    |
    8829 km (5486 mi) distance
    | | Details
  • 01 Jan 1970 00:00 UTC
    | M |
    0 km (0 mi) depth
    |
    8829 km (5486 mi) distance
    | | Details

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Earlier earthquakes in the same area

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