CUCUTA´S

EARTHQUAKE
IN 1881
MICHELL FERNANDA LÓPEZ SIERRA
20291011
• On Saturday, October 17 at 11.35 p.m. local time (October
18 4.35 UT) a strong earthquake on the Colombo-
Venezuelan border, near the city of Cúcuta, caused serious
damage to the populations of the department of Norte de
Santander. The epicenter was located at the coordinates 8.11
north latitude, 72.52 west longitude, had magnitude 5.9
(Mw) and depth of 39 kilometers. A total of twenty deaths
and more than one hundred injuries were estimated.
 Cúcuta was the population most
affected by the earthquake, where,
according to a Civil Defense report,
291 buildings collapsed and 1231
were seriously damaged, including
20 schools, the Departmental
Printing Office, the Department's
Governor's Office, and the
Andressen Asylum, among others.
There were 4 dead and 50 injured.
In Abrego, 17 houses in the town centre
were destroyed, and 5 more were
damaged. In Salazar, six houses went to
ground, eight were semi-destroyed, and 49
were damaged. In Labateca 3 houses were
destroyed in the village of Morgua and 6
in the village of Gratamira. In the village
of Pan de Azúcar (El Zulia), 6 houses
collapsed and 13 were left uninhabitable.
In San José de Ávila (Salazar), 7 houses
were destroyed and 24 suffered very
serious damage, and in San Martín de
Loba (Sardinata) 18 houses were ruined.

In the state of Táchira (Venezuela), the
town that suffered the most damage was
San Antonio del Táchira, a few
kilometers from Cúcuta, where few
non-buildings were severely damaged,
such as the Central Hospital, the
church, the National School, among
others; in Ureña, around 30 houses and
several buildings such as the Prefecture,
the La Frontera School Group and the
San Juan de Dios Church received
considerable damage. Some people were
injured.
In the city of San Cristóbal several
buildings and houses, such as the Oasis,
Paramillo residences, the fire department,
the Central Hospital and the Borota church,
among others, suffered less serious damage,
such as large landslides and moderate
cracks in several walls. Similar damage
occurred in the towns of Aguas Calientes,
Capacho Nuevo y Viejo, Michelena and
Palmira in Venezuela and El Zulia,
Pamplona, Tibú and Villa del Rosario in
Colombia. It was felt in the departments of
Arauca, Santander and Atlántico,
Colombia, and in the states of Trujillo,
Mérida, Barinas and Aragua, Venezuela.
 An aftershock was recorded in Cúcuta on
October 20 at 2:34 p.m., which again
disturbed the inhabitants of this city. It is
important to point out that the earthquake
that occurred on November 26, 1980, in a
similar area, affected buildings in some
Colombian and Venezuelan towns, which
were repaired, but with this 1981
earthquake they were damaged again.