Abstract
Some days after the terrible earthquake which destroyed the colonial town of Los Muzos on April 3 1646, Don Bartolome de Mazmela y Poveda, a local priest. wrote an account which gives valuable information on the effects of the phenomenon. The damage caused in Los Muzos and in the whole region, the occurrence of a series of quakes during severa) weeks (aftershocks), and the religious ceremonies celebrated during two weeks in Los Muzos are the main subjects included in the document.
The important data furnished by Don Bartolome de Mazmela allows to advancement of several ideas on the earthquake. It probably was a shallow event whose epicenter was located southwest of Muzo, within an important seismogenic area which has not received enough attention up to now. From a cullural point of view, the account reveals the tremendous impact caused on the colonial cornunity by earthquakes, and by natural disasters in general. The total misunderstanding of their causes led the authorities and the community to interpret them in mythological terms.
Keywords
References
Espinosa, A., 1994. Cinco terremotos destructores de la Colonia encontrados en los archivos históricos colombianos. Rev. INGEOMINAS. No 4, p. 77-82, Santa Fe de Bogotá.
Domínguez, R., 1965. Historia de las esmeraldas en Colombia, Bogotá 297 p.
Goberna, R., Arias, W., Duarte, J., Palencia, T. & Vargas, T., 1985. Catálogo de Terremotos para América del Sur, volumen 4 Colombia, Proyecto SISRA. CERESIS, Lima.
Mázmela y Poveda, B., 1954. Relación de un riguroso terremoto. Boletín de Historia y Antigüedades, Academia Colombiana de Historia, 41(481-482): 699-710, Bogotá.
Ocola, L., 1984. Catálogos Sísmicos. República de Colombia. Proyecto Sismicidad Andina, SISAN, vol II. Instituto Geofísico del Perú. 200 p., Lima.
Ramírez, J. E., 1975. Historia de los Terremotos en Colombia, Seg. Ed. IGAC, 250 p. Bogotá.
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2024 Revista de la Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales