A strong shock of earthquake Of magnitude 7.7 it hit Panama at hours 12.56pm (local time, 7.56pm in Italy) today, Friday 9 October. According to USGS records, the epicenter it was located in the south of the Central American country, 12 km from Pitaloza Arriba. The hypocenterhowever, was just detected 12km of depth. As often happens, the INGV estimates are slightly different: the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology found a magnitude of 7.5with the shock localized at about 10 km depth. The official data will be confirmed in the next few hours.
The American Tsunami Warning Service has issued the news a tsunami warning following the earthquake, reporting potentially dangerous waves along the coasts of Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico. The various national agencies reported that they had monitoring intensified to follow the evolution of the phenomenon: at the moment, however, Not none were arranged evacuation.
The earthquake was felt distinctly from the resident populationwith some journalists on the scene who described «scenes of panic» in the capital, Panama City, located approximately 196 km from the epicenter. The local newspaper La Prensa reported that they were all over the country buildings, schools and homes evacuatedwith people running into the streets immediately after the first tremor. The Panamanian institute in fact confirmed that it had detected a second earthquake of magnitude 6.0 at 1.22pm local time (8.22pm in Italy).
For the moment, the balance of damage and possible injuries is not clear: the Panamanian National Civil Protection System has advised the population to keep away from windows, objects that could fall and structures that presented risks.
For Latin America it is the earthquake of high intensity occurred within a few months, after the seismic double of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 which destroyed part of the Venezuela in June 2026, the earthquake of magnitude 7.4 which instead devastated the Colombia western in August 2026 and the shock of magnitude 7.2 in Perualso in August 2026.
As also highlighted by INGV, this it does not mean that global seismicity is increasing: the number of earthquakes globally may indeed vary from year to year, but no trend towards an increase or decrease has been highlighted.
