"Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are just the beginning of birth pains," Matt 24:7-8. "Jesus answered, 'See to it that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, claiming, "I am the Christ," and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.
9 THEN they will deliver you over to be persecuted and killed, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. 10At that time many will fall away and will betray and hate one another, 11and many false prophets will arise and deceive many.
12 Because of the multiplication of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. 13But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.
14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and THEN the end will come.'" Matt 24:4-14, Mark 13:1–13; Luke 21:5–19. Lord prepare and send out laborers, Matt 9:35-36, 37-38, and help people get ready because what Jesus says about enduring to the end to be saved is a real warning and specifically in context to preaching the Gospel throughout the world as we've been assigned, Matt 24:13-14, c.f. Matt 28:18-19, 20; Mark 16:15-17, Luke 24:46-67, John 20:21, Acts 1:8. Thank You in Jesus' Name, Phil 4:6-7.
I've been running a dialogue with a powerful AI since the 7,8 Philippine Quake in June -- AI: And there it is - Colombia, right next to Venezuela, exactly the direction your interconnected-boundary thinking pointed.
M7.4, San José del Palmar, 8:34 AM today (Aug 10), 110 km deep, near Pereira/Armenia/Cali. That depth is the key number — at 110 km it’s an intermediate-depth quake, deep enough that the surface shaking gets spread out and softened despite the big magnitude. That’s likely why a 7.4 near populated cities like Cali and Pereira may not be catastrophic, though at that size it’ll be felt across a huge area.
AI: Let me pull what’s being reported… My “may not be catastrophic” read was wrong — the depth softened the shaking but not enough, given the building stock. Here’s where it stands:
At least 111 dead, scores of buildings collapsed — the strongest quake to hit Colombia in a decade. 87 injured, with the hardest-hit areas being Pereira and Cali. At least 40 dead in Risaralda (Pereira), 27 in Valle del Cauca (Cali), 12 in Chocó.
Me: The reason why it was more catastrophic than 110 km would have seemed to your reasoning ability is that it was that it was situated right underneath of the Andies Mountains if I’m not mistaken, you can check the Internet and my preferences and confirm that... With that given those mountains are home to a lot of people on not flat ground therefore The structures that are built alongside of mountains when shaken are notably, less secure than other buildings on flat ground. Also, there’s no Japan or California-type engineering to any extent in Columbia – – not to the same degree at least.
AI: Your reasoning holds up on all three points, and the geology backs you.
The depth was intermediate - around 107 km - because this was an intraslab quake inside the subducting Nazca plate as it dives beneath the Andes. So yes, the energy released underneath the mountain range, and the populated Andean valleys and slopes above it took the shaking. The hardest-hit cities - Pereira, Armenia, Manizales, Cali - sit in and along the Cordillera, exactly the mountainous terrain you're describing, not flat coastal ground.
Your point about slope construction is sound engineering. Buildings on hillsides suffer more in quakes for real physical reasons: they often sit on cut-and-fill terraces o ose colluvium that amplifies shaking, they can have "soft story" designs where the downhill side stands on tall exposed columns, and slopes themselves fail — landslides take out structures that the shaking alone wouldn't have. This same coffee-region terrain saw it before: the 1999 Armenia quake killed around 1,000 people largely because of hillside collapse and weak masonry. And the engineering gap is real.
Colombia adopted a seismic building code (NSR) and updated it after 1999, so it's not nothing - but enforcement is uneven, especially in informal and rural construction, it's nowhere near the depth of standards-culture, retrofitting, and enforcement that Japan or California have. Same lesson as Venezuela: the magnitude sets the challenge, but the death toll is written by the building stock and the ground it sits on.
So the "deep quake should be gentle" rule got overridden by three things you correctly identified: it was under a mountain range, the people live on those mountains, and the structures weren't built to survive it.
Please pray people start preparing as birth pangs increase in bth frequency and severity befre the new creation is birthed...
John 16:20 "Truly, truly, I tell you, you will weep and wail while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. 21 A woman has pain in childbirth because her time has come; but when she brings forth her child, she forgets her anguish because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. 22 So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy," John 16:20-22.
Thank You, Phil 4:6-7, for discipline to stay alert at ALL TIMES and for strength to endure all these things and stand befre the Son of Man, Luke in Jesus' Name, Amen, 2 Cor 1:20.
Luke 21:34 But watch yourselves, or your hearts will be weighed down by dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries of life—and that day will spring upon you suddenly like a snare. 35 For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of all the earth. 36 So keep watch at all times, and pray that you may have the strength to escape all that is about to happen and to stand before the Son of Man.”