Seismic hazard in Colombia
Colombia seismic hazard map
Colombia is split into low, intermediate, and high seismic hazard zones under NSR-10, and Bogotá additionally has a much more detailed microzonation map with 16 soil types. Explore the map, search for your municipio, and understand what that classification means, without the jargon.
How to read this
This map shows the ground's seismic hazard level, not whether a building is safe. It carries two layers that answer different questions: the national layer classifies ground hazard municipio by municipio under NSR-10, while the Bogotá layer shows, in far more detail, how much each soil type amplifies the motion. It is not a structural diagnosis or a certificate, and it does not replace a soil study or an engineer's inspection. It is a simplified, informational version of the official cartography from IDIGER and the Servicio Geológico Colombiano. The flooding layer answers a different question and reads differently: Bogotá’s POT zones (Decreto 555 de 2021) are normative planning categories — not probabilities, and not comparable with the seismic scale — while the national exposure layer is an estimate from a global model, not official zoning.
Explore the map
Tap anywhere on the map, search for your municipio, or use your location. The map switcher moves between “Seismic”, “Flooding” and “Combined risk”, and the panel shows the classification and what it means. On the seismic layer, zooming into Bogotá reveals the detail by soil type; on the flood layer, the POT hazard zoning.
How to read the map
The microzonation splits Bogotá into 16 zones by soil type and thickness. Colour shows how much that soil amplifies earthquake motion, from olive (lowest) to plum (highest). It does not show whether a place is safe or dangerous: it shows how the ground moves.
The numbers in the zone names (Lacustre 200, Aluvial 100…) are the approximate depth of the soil deposit in metres — not a score or a grade.
The six soil families
Hills (Cerros)
Rock and very firm soils in the eastern hills. The ground barely amplifies the motion: an earthquake feels shorter and sharper here than in the rest of the city. In exchange, the slope brings a different concern — ground stability.
Foothills (Piedemonte)
The strip where the hills meet the savanna: compact gravels and sands over shallow soil. It amplifies fast, short-period motion, which mostly affects low, stiff buildings.
Hillside deposit
Loose material piled at the foot of slopes by gravity. It amplifies long periods only slightly, but it is the ground where slope stability and water management matter most.
Alluvial
Deposits left by rivers: alternating layers of sand, silt, and clay. It amplifies moderately, and its behaviour varies quite a bit from point to point depending on what the river left behind.
Lacustrine-alluvial
Transition zones where the ancient lake's clays mix with material carried in by rivers. It behaves between lacustrine and alluvial, with high long-period amplification.
Lacustrine
Very soft, deep clays from the savanna's ancient lake. This is the soil that amplifies slow, long motion the most: the ground sways for longer, which tall buildings feel especially. The number in the zone name is the approximate depth of the deposit in metres.
The zone is not a verdict on your building
A soil map answers exactly one question: how the motion arrives at the ground beneath your construction. What happens from there upward depends on the building — and that's where nearly all the difference lives.
- The construction year and the code in force at the time — NSR-10 and Decreto 523 are both from 2010; before that came NSR-98 and CCCSR-84.
- The structural system: frames, concrete shear walls, confined masonry, or unconfined masonry.
- Height: tall buildings respond to long motion, low buildings to short motion.
- Actual condition: maintenance, damp, renovations that removed walls, and unpermitted extensions.
That's why the useful next step isn't changing zone — it's knowing the state of your building. A seismic vulnerability study with a structural engineer is the serious answer; after an earthquake, a quick photo review helps you triage.
Frequently asked questions
What is Bogotá's seismic microzonation?
It is the official study that divides the city into zones according to how their soil behaves during an earthquake. It was adopted in Decreto 523 de 2010 and it is the basis on which buildings in Bogotá are designed under the NSR-10 framework. IDIGER publishes the data.
What does my zone mean?
It tells you what kind of soil lies underneath and how much that soil amplifies earthquake motion. A higher-amplification zone does not mean your building is in danger: it means the ground moves more, and the structural design was supposed to account for it.
What are Fa, Fv, and TL?
They are the coefficients the code uses to adjust the design spectrum in each zone. Fa amplifies short periods, which affect low buildings most; Fv amplifies long periods, which affect tall buildings and soft soils most; and TL marks the period, in seconds, where the spectrum shifts from constant velocity to constant displacement. The values shown correspond to a 475-year return period.
Why does my building matter more than my zone?
Because the zone describes the soil, and the building decides how it responds to that motion. Construction year, structural system, height, maintenance, and renovations explain most of the difference between two neighbouring buildings. If you're concerned, the right step is a seismic vulnerability study with a structural engineer.
What should I do after an earthquake?
If you see large diagonal cracks, columns with spalled concrete, or new separations between walls and slabs, evacuate and call 123. If the damage looks minor, you can use our preliminary photo-based seismic check for guidance while you arrange a professional inspection.
What does the seismic hazard map for the rest of Colombia mean?
Outside Bogotá, the map shows NSR-10's official municipio-level seismic hazard classification (Title A): low, intermediate, or high, based on Servicio Geológico Colombiano data. It's a coarser layer than Bogotá's microzonation — it describes the whole municipio, not each soil type within it. Bogotá is, for now, the only municipio in the country with detailed seismic microzonation at that scale.
Sources and methodology
Bogotá's zones come from the official seismic microzonation cartography for Bogotá, adopted by Decreto 523 de 2010 and published by IDIGER. Each zone's Fa, Fv, Ao, and TL coefficients are the decree's values for a 475-year return period. For the rest of Colombia we use NSR-10's municipio-level seismic hazard classification, Title A (Servicio Geológico Colombiano and AIS), over DANE's 2023 Marco Geoestadístico Nacional municipal boundaries.
- Source
- IDIGER — Microzonificación Sísmica de Bogotá (Decreto 523 de 2010)
- Municipal boundaries
- DANE, Marco Geoestadístico Nacional 2023
- Seismic hazard table
- Servicio Geológico Colombiano (SGC) and Asociación Colombiana de Ingeniería Sísmica (AIS) — NSR-10, Title A
- Dataset date
- 25 October 2010
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0 — attribution to IDIGER
The polygons shown are simplified so the map loads fast in the browser: the boundaries between zones are approximate and can drift a few tens of metres from the original cartography. For permits, licences, or structural design, always use IDIGER's official cartography.
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