Feb 9, 2013 - 10:25:14 AM
BOGOTA, Colombia - A powerful but deep earthquake shook a broad swath of Colombia and Ecuador on Saturday, sending frightened people fleeing into the streets, but there were no immediate reports of significant damage or deaths.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the 9:16 a.m. (14:16 GMT) quake had a magnitude of 7.0.It was centered about 7 miles (11 kilometers) from the Colombian town of Pasto and 77 miles (129 kilometers) below the surface.
The quake was felt hundreds of miles (kilometres) south in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, where buildings shook for at least two minutes. Some residents of the Colombian capital, Bogota, were evacuated briefly from buildings.
"For the time being no damages have been reported in southern regions and the Andean area, where the quake was felt," said the head of the national emergency services office, Carlos Ivan Marquez, said in a Twitter posting.
He said the quake did not generate a tsunami warming.
Ecuadorean media said the tremor was felt throughout the Andean country and that people in the coastal city of Manta briefly evacuated their homes, but there were no reports of major damages.
Colombia's national disaster chief, Carlos Ivan Marquez, said officials had made a damage survey across the country "and fortunately up to this moment we have no reports of human losses."
In the province of Narino, where the quake hit, secretary of government Jaime Rodriguez said officials had reports of three people hurt when roof tiles fell in the town of El Charco along the Pacific Coast. Officials in Ecuador also reported no significant damage.
Colombian television showed people fleeing into the streets in southwestern cities such as Cali, and small cracks in the walls of some buildings.
Earth Changes Media
http://www.earthchangesmedia.com/secure/3247.326/article-9162533768.php
