Earthquakes in Popayán: The 1983 Good Friday Disaster

Yes, Popayán is a high-risk earthquake zone. The capital of Colombia's Cauca department, in the country's southwest, sits in a region of intense tectonic and volcanic activity, classified as high seismic hazard under Colombia's Earthquake-Resistant Construction Code (NSR-10).

The risk comes from the subduction of the Nazca plate beneath the South American plate off Colombia's Pacific coast, and from a dense network of active faults running through the Cordillera Central and the Colombian Massif, including the Romeral and Cauca faults. The nearby Puracé volcano adds a further hazard component. The soft volcanic and sedimentary soils on which the city has grown tend to amplify ground motion during an earthquake.

The most memorable earthquake struck on 31 March 1983, a Holy Thursday. With a magnitude of around 5.5 but a very shallow epicentre right beneath the city, it killed close to 300 people and badly damaged the colonial historic centre, one of the best preserved in the country. Popayán's reconstruction became a national reference point for heritage preservation and seismic resistance, confirming why the city must maintain strict construction standards.