EERI Virtual Earthquake Reconnaissance Team (VERT) Phase 1 Report
This report describes reconnaissance findings which were conducted virtually as part of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute’s (EERI) Learning from Earthquakes (LFE) Virtual Earthquakes Reconnaissance Team (VERT). VERT is a team of volunteers that activate after major earthquakes to curate reports on the impact to the community. VERT activates in a series of phases after an earthquake to assist in-field teams with data-driven reconnaissance. This report is VERT’s Phase 1 report for the M7.4 San José del Palmar, Colombia Earthquake that occurred on August 10th, 2026. The report summarizes earthquake characteristics, aftershocks, and emergency response, as well as geotechnical hazards such as tsunami and landslide impacts. The report also summarizes the impacts to the region on a variety of different topics, including public health, schools, buildings, housing, transportation, and utilities. This report is based on publicly available data within 48 hours of the events. The assessment provided in the report is performed by the judgment of the authors with limited access to ground-truthing. Data in this report are intended to give a rapid overview of earthquake impacts and inform potential field reconnaissance efforts.
