M6.8 earthquake 6 km NNW of Aratoca, Colombia
A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck 6 km NNW of Aratoca, Colombia on Sat, Jul 29, 1967, 5:24 AM GMT-5 (10:24 UTC), 161 km (100 mi) below the surface.
Map
Where this earthquake was located, with the others nearby. Select one for its page.
The earthquake
- Magnitude
- 6.8 (Mw, moment), strong
- Magnitude from
- ISC-GEM global catalog
- Local time
- UTC
- 1967-07-29 10:24:25 UTC
- Depth
- 161.2 km (100.2 mi), intermediate-depth
- Epicenter
- 6.747° N, 73.032° W
- Region
- Colombia
- Strongest shaking
- V, moderate shaking
- Tsunami flag
- No
- Status
- Reviewed by a seismologist
Deaths and damage
From NOAA NCEI’s Significant Earthquake Database (record 4407), matched to this event by time and place.
- Deaths
- 20
- Injuries
- 150
- Damage
- $2 million
- Houses damaged
- Many (101 to 1,000)
Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.
What happened
The USGS’s account of the effects of this earthquake.
Fourteen people were killed and 40 injured in Santander, mostly in the Betulia-Zapatoca area, where some houses, churches and public buildings collapsed and others were damaged. Some other people were killed when they were trapped under the towers of the basilica at Chiquinquirá in Boyacá. Damage also occurred in Antioquia and Norte de Santander. The quake was felt in most of Colombia, as far away as Pasto and Santa Marta.
Translated and abridged from Sismicidad Histórica de Colombia, by Servicio Geológico Colombiano, Bogotá, online at http://sish.sgc.gov.co/visor/ Retrieved 07 Aug 2022
From the USGS event page for iscgem833862. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.
Shaking
The USGS ShakeMap: shaking estimated from seismic stations and the quake’s size, on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale.
- Strongest estimated
- V, moderate shaking
- Peak ground acceleration
- 5.4% of gravity
- Peak ground velocity
- 1.3 cm/s
- Map
- Automatic
Did you feel it?
No one has reported feeling this quake to the USGS.
How well it is located
Reviewed by a seismologist.
- Magnitude uncertainty
- ±0.10
- Depth from
- From location
Nearest places
Distance and direction from each place to the epicenter, with its forecast.
Nearby
Within 100 km, magnitude 3.8 and up: 0 in the 60 days after this one and 0 in the 30 days before it.
None recorded.
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Sources
From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event iscgem833862 (also filed as atlas19670729102426). Read Mon, Oct 5, 2026, 2:37 PM UTC.