Estudio macrosismico del terremoto del 18 octubre del 1743 en la region central de Colombia

Abstract

On October 18, 1743 a great earthquake hit in Colombian central region. This seismic event caused severe damage in Santa Fe de Bogota that since 1740 had just been reinstated again as the capital of the “Nuevo Reino de Granada”. The churches of “Monserrate” and “Guadalupe” were destroyed and other suffered heavy damage. Damages were extended in surrounding areas as the towns of Fómeque, Chia, Usaquén Cáqueza, among others. In these towns, the churches were destroyed, and subsidence phenomena were noted, large cracks, fissures and landslides that clogged roads and some rivers and caused the death several people and animals. Applying the 1998 European Macroseismic Scale (EMS- 98), in the present work reassessing the macroseismic intensity in each affected town. We present a new macroseismic map with 18 intensity data points. We have proposed as maximum intensity equal to VIII in Fómeque, Guachavita and Cáqueza. In Santa Fe de Bogota the instensity is VII. The Bakun and Wentworth (1997) method is applied, using the intensity data points obtained in the present study and macroseismic intensity attenuation relationship given by Gómez Capera and Salcedo Hurtado (2002), to estimate earthquake parameters to 1743 event. We have proposed a macroseismic magnitude that equals 6.30±0.35 and the epicenter location in (4.43N, 73.91W) between the townships of Cáqueza and Guachavita.