Medellin Shakes Overnight

Last night while you were either asleep, or you should have been, there were 2 earthquakes which were felt in Medellin last night. There was a light magnitude 2.0 earthquake that hit 4.7 km away from Frontino, Antioquia on Dec 10, 2025 at 1.28 am local time. The quake had a very shallow depth of 4 km and was not a something you would notice unless you were laying in bed. It would feel like a big truck going by.

However, this was just a warmup, because at 3:27 am local time, 15 km from Aratoca, Santander (south of Bucaramanga), there was a 5.5 magnitude earthquake that was definitely felt all over Medellin, however most were likely asleep, as I was but it was enough to wake me up.

I know when people hear earthquake, they get visions of Haiti, Mexico City, San Francisco or Los Angeles earthquakes which cause devastation. In the end, Loma Prieta in San Francisco (1989) was a 6.9 magnitude, Northridge in Los Angeles (1994) and Mexico City in 1985 was an 8.0 magnitude, but that only tells a part of the story.

I'm from the San Francisco Bay Area, and I lived through the 1989 earthquake, as well as hundreds of smaller quakes, and I'm accustomed to them, but to those that don't expect them or have experienced them, they're scary. There is one thing to think about here - the first is the magnitude, 5.5 is pretty substantial, and the depth of the quake was at about 1km, and it was about 350km away. To feel it at all was pretty incredible.

In the 10 years I've been here, I've felt numerous earthquakes, and I can tell you one thing with absolute certainty - the earthquakes here are nothing bad. The earthquakes here feel like gentle waves, scary yes, but dangerous, no. The earthquakes on the northern part of the San Andreas fault line, those are different all together. When you feel an earthquake there it's violent shakes, and it will wake you up from a dead sleep thinking the world is ending.

The way I try and help people to visualize it is to try and imagine you are sitting on a table and someone moves the table up and down a couple of cm. No matter how hard the move you up and down it's not too bad. Now try to imagine you're sitting on a table and someone comes and kicks the edge of table multiple times. Since you're not prepared for either they're pretty scary, however only one is a real danger. Lifting the table is going to jar you a little bit, but the kicking is going be infinitely scarier.

The earthquakes here are gentler and are nothing more than something to talk about. Further up the San Andreas fault, it's a different story. Newer buildings are all built with seismic events in mind, so chances are you are safe. However these are unpredictable, and if we start having violent earthquakes here we may have to start to worry. Until then, enjoy the roller coaster ride.