Aftershocks and travel: stay cautious without panicking

Before, during and after

Identify a safe area and keep shoes, documents, water, medicine and a charged power bank accessible. During shaking, drop, protect your head and neck and hold on to sturdy furniture. Afterwards, stay away from façades and do not re-enter a damaged building without authorisation.

Special care on the Pacific coast

After strong shaking or an unusual retreat of the sea, move immediately to higher ground and follow DIMAR and local evacuation routes. Do not wait for a social-media post before leaving.

Travel without generalising the crisis

Colombia is not entirely closed and impacts differ greatly by region. For Chocó, Valle del Cauca or the Coffee Region, confirm flights, roads, connections, accommodation and insurance separately. Do not enter a rescue area out of curiosity.

An aftershock documented at 10:43:39 a.m.

The revised permanent Servicio Geológico Colombiano record places a magnitude 3.9 event at San José del Palmar, Chocó, on August 11 at 10:43:39 a.m. Colombia time. The reported depth is 92 kilometres; the manual solution uses 104 stations and 259 felt reports. Its identifier is SGC2026pssmqj.

The event appears at 10:30 a.m. in the timeline. Times when the tremor was felt or reported elsewhere are separate reference points.

A temporary rescue-zone evacuation in Cali

In its live report published at 11:13 a.m., EL PAÍS reported that the tremor was felt around 11:02 a.m. in Cali and that rescuers temporarily evacuated the Los Cámbulos area. This is the reported felt time, not the instrumental event time.

The length of the pause and the conditions for full resumption at Los Cámbulos were not specified.

An official count of 99 aftershocks at 11:30 a.m.

The SGC said that by 11:30 a.m. on August 11, 99 aftershocks had been recorded in the main-shock sequence: six exceeded magnitude 3.0 and one exceeded 4.0. El Espectador reports this cutoff and attributes it to the SGC. It is a snapshot at a precise time, not a final ceiling or a count of every earthquake in Colombia.

The SGC public catalogue showed, among other events, a manually reviewed magnitude 2.1 event at Sipí at 11:26 a.m., 50 kilometres deep, followed by a magnitude 2.5 event near San José del Palmar at 11:34 a.m., 83 kilometres deep. They document the continuing sequence but cannot be used to recalculate a new total.

At 11:23 a.m., Cali mayor Alejandro Eder reported that another tremor had been felt in the city and asked residents to follow official information. His post is not linked here to a specific instrumental event. Aftershocks cannot predict the date or strength of another earthquake.

Airports reopen, but Pereira remains restricted

In an update published at 11:33 a.m., Aerocivil announced that normal commercial operations had resumed at Cali’s Alfonso Bonilla Aragón Airport and fully resumed at El Caraño Airport in Quibdó after facility inspections. El Edén Airport in Armenia was operating under controlled conditions. Buenaventura and La Nubia in Manizales could handle commercial operations as uncontrolled airports; in Manizales, repairs continued in the control tower while the runway and movement area had been verified as safe.

Regular commercial operations remained suspended at Pereira. The terminal was reserved for state, medical, search-and-rescue and humanitarian-aid flights. Resumption, controlled operation and restriction must therefore not be treated as the same status.

Two events cataloged after the 11:30 a.m. cutoff

The official SGC catalog consulted at 2:46 p.m. retains the published count of 99 aftershocks through 11:30 a.m. on August 11, including six above magnitude 3.0 and one above magnitude 4.0.

After that cutoff, the catalog shows two manually processed low-magnitude events in the affected area: magnitude 2.5 at 11:34 a.m., depth 83 km, in San José del Palmar (ID SGC2026psudyk), and magnitude 2.7 at 2:03 p.m., depth 48 km, in El Litoral del San Juan, Docordó (ID SGC2026pszdet).

The SGC did not publish a new cumulative total after 11:30 a.m. in the sources reviewed. The two events are therefore documented separately, without mechanically adding them to the 99 aftershocks or attributing new damage to them.

A magnitude 2.5 event in Istmina at 4:56 p.m.

The Colombian Geological Service catalogue records a magnitude 2.5 seismic event in Istmina, Chocó, at 4:56:16 p.m. Colombia time on August 11. The published manual solution gives a depth of 38 kilometres and the identifier SGC2026ptevqq.

The individual record does not report any associated damage or incident. Because the SGC did not publish a new cumulative figure in the reviewed sources after its 99-event cutoff at 11:30 a.m., this event is documented separately: it is not mechanically added to that total or definitively classified here as an aftershock.

A magnitude 3.5 event in San José del Palmar at 5:24 p.m.

The Colombian Geological Service’s revised manual solution places a magnitude 3.5 seismic event in San José del Palmar, Chocó, on August 11 at 5:24:02 p.m. Colombia time. The permanent record consulted on August 12 now gives a depth of 91 kilometres, based on 68 stations, and eight felt reports; the record identifier is SGC2026ptftuf.

The individual record does not mention any associated damage or incident. The event appears at 5:30 p.m. in the timeline. With no new official total after the 99-event cutoff at 11:30 a.m., the event is documented separately, without mechanically adding it to that count or definitively classifying it as an aftershock.

Two low-magnitude events at 11:07 and 11:09 p.m.

The SGC records a magnitude 3.0 event at a depth of 49 kilometres on August 11 at 11:07:39 p.m., followed by a magnitude 3.2 event at a depth of 94 kilometres at 11:09:23 p.m. Both manual solutions are located at San José del Palmar, Chocó; their identifiers are SGC2026ptrdtd and SGC2026ptrfev.

The permanent records mention no associated damage and contained no felt reports when consulted. The initial X bulletin for the second event gave magnitude 3.1 and a depth of 96 kilometres; the revised permanent-record parameters, magnitude 3.2 and 94 kilometres, are used here.

The two events appear together at 11:00 p.m. in the timeline. Because the SGC has not published a new cumulative total after the 99-event cutoff at 11:30 a.m., they are not mechanically added to that total or definitively classified here as aftershocks.

Three automatic events between 1:15 and 1:53 a.m.

On August 12, the SGC recorded two events at El Litoral del San Juán (Docordó), Chocó: magnitude 2.5 at 1:15:35 a.m. at a depth of 78 kilometres, followed by magnitude 2.1 at 1:40:29 a.m. with the depth described as shallow, below 70 kilometres. A third magnitude 2.4 event was located at Nóvita at 1:53:26 a.m. and a depth of 81 kilometres.

All three records carry automatic status, so their parameters are provisional and may be revised. The records mention no damage, incident or felt report. With no new official cumulative total after the SGC’s 99-aftershock cutoff on August 11 at 11:30 a.m., these events are documented separately and are not definitively classified here as aftershocks.

A manual magnitude 2.6 event at 7:47 a.m.

The SGC locates a magnitude 2.6 seismic event at El Litoral del San Juán (Docordó), Chocó, on August 12 at 7:47:05 a.m. Colombia time. The published manual solution gives a depth of 54 kilometres, uses 16 stations and carries identifier SGC2026puijhg.

The permanent record mentions no damage, incident or felt report. The event appears at 8:00 a.m. in the timeline. No new official cumulative count is calculated, and the event is not definitively classified here as an aftershock.

Official cumulative count reaches 130 aftershocks at 6:00 a.m.

The Colombian Geological Service says it recorded 130 aftershocks following the main San José del Palmar earthquake, in an update with a 6:00 a.m. Colombia-time cutoff on August 12.

This cumulative count follows the 99 aftershocks announced at 11:30 a.m. on August 11. It includes instrumental activity through its own cutoff; later events must remain documented separately until a new official total is issued.

Two manual events at 7:08 and 7:09 a.m.

The SGC locates a magnitude 2.0 event at Istmina on August 12 at 7:08:37 a.m., at a depth of 44 kilometres, followed at 7:09:22 a.m. by a magnitude 2.3 event at Sipí, at a depth of 86 kilometres. The two solutions are manual and use 11 and 18 stations respectively; their identifiers are SGC2026puhcdi and SGC2026puhcuu.

The records mention no damage, incident or felt report. These events occurred after the official count of 130 aftershocks with a 6:00 a.m. cutoff: they are documented separately, without recalculating that total or definitively classifying them here as aftershocks. They appear together at 7:00 a.m. in the timeline.

A manually reviewed magnitude 2.6 event at 12:27 p.m.

The Colombian Geological Survey locates a manually reviewed magnitude 2.6 seismic event at San José del Palmar, Chocó, on August 12 at 12:27:51 p.m. Colombia time. The solution uses data from 19 stations, gives a depth of 85 kilometres and carries the identifier SGC2026purrga.

The record mentions no damage, incident or felt report. The event occurred after the official count of 130 aftershocks with a 6:00 a.m. cutoff: it remains documented separately, without recalculating that total or definitively classifying it here as an aftershock. It appears at 12:30 p.m. in the timeline as a retrospective addition.

The SGC warns about false messages

In an official post at 1:00 p.m., the SGC warns that false messages circulating on social media after the August 10 earthquake are alarming the public. Its director general, Julio Fierro Morales, urges people to consult official sources and share responsible content that respects the victims.

The visible message does not detail every false claim. No specific content is therefore attributed to them here: the warning concerns checking information, not a new toll, a new seismic event or a prediction.

Two manually reviewed events at 12:47 and 1:32 p.m.

The SGC locates a manually reviewed magnitude 2.3 event at San José del Palmar on August 12 at 12:47:25 p.m., at a depth of 96 kilometres, using a solution based on 15 stations. The timeline adds it retrospectively at 1:00 p.m.

A second manually reviewed event, magnitude 3.4, occurred near San José del Palmar at 1:32:20 p.m. It had a depth of 98 kilometres and a solution based on 39 stations; it appears at 1:30 p.m. The records mention no damage, incident or felt report. Both events remain separate from the official count of 130 aftershocks cut off at 6:00 a.m. and are not definitively classified here as aftershocks.

Santa Ana Airport in Cartago authorised to resume operations

At 1:39:56 p.m., Aerocivil said Santa Ana Airport in Cartago could resume operations after an infrastructure assessment. The authority gave no flight count, commercial timetable or residual restrictions.

Two new events catalogued by SGC

SGC located a magnitude 2.9 event near Apía, Risaralda, at 1:59:30 p.m. on August 12 at a depth of 108 km. The manual solution uses 41 stations; the listed nearby places are Apía at 4 km, Santuario at 5 km and Pueblo Rico at 13 km.

At 2:37:20 p.m., a magnitude 3.0 event was located at a depth of 90 km near San José del Palmar, Chocó, using 45 stations. The records mention no damage, incident or felt report. They occurred after the official count of 130 aftershocks cut off at 6:00 a.m. and are not used to recalculate it.

A shallow magnitude 2.5 event near Istmina

SGC recorded a shallow magnitude 2.5 event near Istmina, Chocó, at 7:13 p.m. on August 12.

The bulletin reports no damage, confirmed felt report or formal link to the aftershock sequence.

A shallow magnitude 2.8 event in El Litoral del San Juán

The Colombian Geological Service places a magnitude 2.8 seismic event at 12:43 a.m. Colombia time on August 13 in El Litoral del San Juán, near Docordó in Chocó. Updated bulletin No. 1 describes the depth as shallow and was published at 12:48:50 a.m.

The bulletin reports no associated damage, incident or human impact. The event is documented separately from the official cumulative count of 130 aftershocks with a 6:00 a.m. cutoff on August 12: it is not used to recalculate that total and is not definitively described here as an aftershock.