Massive 7.7 Earthquake Shakes Panama, Triggers Tsunami Threat Across the Pacific

A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck southern Panama on Friday, October 9, rattling buildings as far away as Panama City and Costa Rica and triggering tsunami threat messages for coastlines across Central and South America. The U.S. Geological Survey has issued a red PAGER alert for economic losses, meaning extensive damage is probable and the disaster is likely widespread.

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What we know about the quake

According to the USGS event page, the earthquake hit at 12:56 PM local time (1:56 PM Eastern), centered about 12 km (7 miles) west-southwest of Pitaloza Arriba, a rural community on Panama’s Azuero Peninsula near the Pacific coast. It was shallow — about 12.6 km (7.8 miles) deep — and shallow quakes tend to deliver much stronger shaking at the surface.

Early readings bounced around. Some initial reports put it as high as 8.0 and others at 7.6, but the USGS has settled on magnitude 7.7. USGS estimates that roughly 4.6 million people felt moderate to severe shaking.

The USGS says the quake was caused by left-lateral strike-slip faulting near the edge of the Panama microplate, where the Cocos, Nazca, Caribbean and South America plates all meet. Big quakes are not new here. The area had a magnitude 7.5 in 1934 and a 7.2 in 1962, but a hit this size is rare for Panama.

Damage reports from Panama

Videos from Panama City show high-rise buildings swaying, windows rattling and crowds pouring into the streets. Panama City is roughly 200 km (124 miles) from the epicenter, and that distance likely helped spare the capital. A maternity ward and other buildings were evacuated as a precaution.

Closer to the epicenter, the picture is worse. Panama’s civil protection chief said impacts were concentrated in the central provinces of Veraguas, Herrera and Los Santos, including Chitré and along the Los Santos coast. Videos shared by the newspaper La Prensa showed the tower of a historic building collapse, along with several balconies of a residential building, in Penonomé. Residents in Herrera province described cracked and damaged homes.

Other impacts reported by Reuters:

• Two Panama City Metro lines were temporarily suspended for safety checks
• The education ministry closed schools nationwide
• The Panama Canal said it was operating normally

As of this writing, authorities had not confirmed any casualty numbers. USGS PAGER puts the shaking-related fatality risk at yellow (some casualties possible), and notes that many homes in the region are vulnerable unreinforced brick and adobe construction. Ironically, Panama had a national earthquake evacuation drill scheduled for next Monday.

Tsunami threat across the Pacific coast

Within minutes, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said hazardous waves were possible. Its forecast called for waves of 1 to 3 meters (3 to 10 feet) above tide level along some coasts of Panama, with smaller waves for other Pacific coastlines. Warnings or threat messages covered countries from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua down to Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, and Chile’s navy issued its own warning.

Update: In its final message at 3:39 PM Eastern, PTWC said the tsunami threat from this earthquake has now passed. Minor sea-level fluctuations are still possible near the epicenter for a few hours, so stay cautious near the water and follow local authorities.

Aftershocks are rolling in

A string of strong aftershocks followed the main quake. USGS has recorded a magnitude 5.5 and a magnitude 5.8 within the first hour, plus several more in the magnitude 5 range. USGS warns that more aftershocks, some with strong shaking, are likely in the coming days. If you’re in the region: drop, cover and hold on, and check for cracks, gas leaks and damaged wiring before going back inside.

A busy week on the Ring of Fire

This is the second major quake in two days. On October 8, a magnitude 6.3 struck off Vanuatu in the South Pacific. It also follows a deadly year for the region. In June, twin quakes devastated northern Venezuela, and in August a magnitude 7.4 hit Colombia, where we watched entire buildings collapse.

On the ReadyAtlas map, you can also see each quake’s antipode, the exact opposite point on the globe. For the Panama quake, that lands near Indonesia. It’s not a prediction, just an interesting data point to watch.

Why the U.S. West Coast should pay attention

A quake like this a few countries farther north, off Mexico’s Pacific coast, could put tsunami alerts on the table for California, Hawaii and even Alaska. Tsunamis can cross entire oceans when there’s enough energy behind them.

Closer to home, a magnitude 5.5 hit southern Alaska north of Kodiak Island on October 6. That’s the same area Washington state geologists used this summer to model a hypothetical magnitude 9.2 Alaska-Aleutian quake. In that scenario, the first tsunami waves reach the Washington coast about three and a half hours later and spread into Puget Sound. A lot of U.S. infrastructure, from older buildings to highway overpasses, was never built to handle that kind of shaking. If you live on the coast or in quake country, now is the time to have a plan.

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Full video: A MASSIVE 7.7 Earthquake just SHOOK EVERYTHING..... Tsunami THREAT Issued