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Rescue workers search for survivors amid the rubble of a collapsed building in Cali, Colombia's third-largest city, following a powerful earthquake on the 10th (local time). / EPA-Yonhap

Just about a month and a half after a massive earthquake in Venezuela killed thousands, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake has struck neighboring Colombia, leaving more than 100 people dead and hundreds injured. With more than 2,700 people reported missing and search efforts continuing at collapsed buildings, the death toll is expected to rise further.

According to AP and CNN, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said the earthquake, which struck around 7:34 a.m. on the 10th (local time), was centered near San José del Palmar in Chocó department, about 400 km west of the Colombian capital, Bogotá. The area, home to about 4,800 people, experienced the quake at a depth of roughly 107 km.

This earthquake in Colombia has a different underlying cause than the one that struck Venezuela in late June, killing more than 6,300 people. Western Colombia sits along the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area prone to frequent seismic and volcanic activity, while the Venezuela earthquake occurred along the boundary between the Caribbean and South American plates, outside the Ring of Fire. Geologists say this makes it unlikely that the two major earthquakes, striking neighboring countries within a similar timeframe, are directly related.

The earthquake struck several regions in western Colombia, including Cali, the country's third-largest city, as well as Pereira, Quibdó, and Manizales. Tremors were also felt in neighboring Ecuador and Panama. Colombia's Geological Survey said the earthquake was the strongest recorded in the country in the 21st century, with 21 aftershocks observed since.

The South Korean Embassy in Colombia said in an emergency notice that day that strong tremors were also felt in the Bogotá area, but no significant structural damage has been reported there so far. About 800 Korean nationals live in Colombia, most of them concentrated in Bogotá.

                                                                                                           Kim Hyun-min