official data (USGS; SINAPROC via TVN; UN OCHA Sitrep 3; PAHO/WHO)
Panama's M7.7 quake: 2,164 families affected, 506 lost their homes, no deaths, and aftershocks that could run for weeks
EARTHQUAKE // AZUERO PENINSULA, PANAMA
7.7magnitude
2,164 families affected, 27 injured, no deaths (SINAPROC, to Oct 12; UN OCHA)
Five days on, Panama's strongest quake in a century has killed no one, and it keeps shaking. SINAPROC counts 2,164 families affected and 506 families lost their homes.
Key facts
- Magnitude
- M7.7 (USGS); 7.6 (University of Panama IGC-UP)
- Affected
- 2,164 families, 7,480 people, 9 provinces (SINAPROC, to Oct 12)
- Homes lost
- 506 families (SINAPROC)
- Casualties
- 27 injured, no deaths or missing (OCHA)
- Largest aftershocks
- M6.6 Oct 9; M6.1 Oct 12 (USGS)
Twenty-seven people are injured, and there are no reports of deaths or missing people.
UN OCHA, Panama Sitrep 3, Oct 12
Note
USGS put the October 9 earthquake at M7.7, 12.6 km deep, near 7.587 North, 80.769 West on the Azuero Peninsula. The University of Panama's Institute of Geosciences put it at 7.6 and said the last major quake on this fault system was a 6.9 in 1913.
ATTRIBUTION: SINAPROC's Communique No. 9, with data to 10 PM local October 12, counts 2,164 families (7,480 people) affected in 9 provinces, 506 of them with the total loss of their home. OCHA's Sitrep 3 reports 27 injured, no deaths or missing, 619 schools and 29 health facilities affected, 16 bridges damaged and more than 800 people in shelters. PAHO/WHO puts about 41,000 people where moderate to heavy damage is expected.
IGC-UP had recorded more than 350 aftershocks by October 12 and says they could continue for weeks. USGS lists an M6.6 on October 9 and an M6.1 on October 12.
The luck here was real. So is the long tail.
Why it matters
IGC-UP says the last major quake on this fault system was a 6.9 in 1913. With hundreds of aftershocks and rain triggering landslides, damaged homes stay empty.
Sources
- USGS: M 7.7, 12 km WSW of Pitaloza Arriba, Panama
- UN OCHA Panama Earthquake Sitrep 3 (Oct 12)
- PAHO Sitrep 1
- Hero data: USGS event us6000u18k
Primary + secondary attribution as listed.
More: Earthquakes
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