A Magnitude 7.7 Earthquake Strikes Panama, Collapsing Buildings and Triggering Tsunami Alerts

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Panama's Azuero Peninsula on Friday, collapsing buildings in Penonomé, Tonosí and Los Santos, injuring several people and prompting tsunami warnings from Colombia to Mexico.

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck southern Panama on Friday afternoon, collapsing buildings across the country's central provinces and briefly putting the Pacific coasts of two continents on tsunami alert.

The U.S. Geological Survey placed the epicenter about 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) southwest of Pitaloza Arriba, in Herrera Province on the Azuero Peninsula, at a shallow depth of 12.6 kilometres. The mainshock struck at 12:56 p.m. local time (17:56 UTC) on 9 October, and a magnitude 6.6 aftershock followed at 20:25 UTC.

In Panama City, high-rise towers swayed and hundreds of residents poured into the streets. The National Civil Protection Service said the damage was concentrated in the central provinces of Veraguas, Herrera and Los Santos. In Penonomé, roughly 150 kilometres from the capital, the St John Baptist Cathedral cracked and partially collapsed, along with the governor's office building and the Dos Continentes hotel. A hotel and several homes collapsed in Tonosí, and the colonial-era San Atanasio church in Los Santos province — a National Historic Heritage Site since 1938 — was destroyed. A highway west of the capital was sheared in half. Officials reported several injuries, including one person struck by falling debris, and no confirmed deaths.

The U.S. National Weather Service issued a tsunami warning at 18:02 UTC covering Colombia, Ecuador and much of the Central American Pacific coast, while the USGS warned of possible hazardous waves as far north as Mexico and as far south as Peru. The threat was later scaled back: Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast were cleared, and Chile's warning was cancelled. President José Raúl Mulino urged the public not to spread alarm. Tocumen International Airport, one of the region's busiest, suspended operations while it inspected its facilities, and the Panama Canal Authority said shipping through the waterway continued normally. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington was mobilising assistance at Panama's request.

Sources: USGS | The Guardian | Wikipedia