Panama rocked by 7.7 and 6.6 magnitude earthquakes; no deaths reported

Panama convulsed twice on Friday—first a magnitude 7.7 earthquake that rattled buildings across the country, then a 6.6 quake roughly two and a half hours later. The initial tremor struck about seven miles southwest of the remote settlement of Pitaloza Arriba on Panama's southern tip, centered at a shallow depth of seven miles. The second quake followed, its epicenter eight miles west of Río Grande on the Pacific coast. By Friday evening, President José Raúl Mulino reported no deaths, though he acknowledged that assessment could shift in the hours and days ahead. "Nobody was ready, and no one is ever ready for this type of disaster," he said.

The ground did not stop moving. Seismologists at the University of Panama recorded more than forty-five aftershocks, many too faint to feel but several strong enough to rattle nerves—magnitudes of 5.8, 5.5, and 5.2 among them. In Panama City, the capital's hundreds of skyscrapers swayed. Residents fled into the streets, waiting for word. Rosendo Domínguez, a sixty-year-old from Herrera province near the epicenter, described the moment to the Associated Press: "We felt it very strongly. It knocked things over in the kitchen, but we're OK, though we're very scared. Everyone is outside, scared."

The damage concentrated in Panama's central provinces—Veraguas, Herrera, and Los Santos. In Penonomé, roughly ninety-three miles from the capital, a person was struck by debris from a partially collapsed building. The cathedral in Penonomé's main square cracked. The governor's office building sustained damage, as did the Dos Continentes hotel. But the most visible loss was cultural: the Church of San Atanasio, a colonial-era Catholic structure in Los Santos province, collapsed entirely. The church had been declared a National Historic Heritage Site in 1938. Elsewhere, large fissures split roadways in Veraguas province, the earth literally tearing open.

The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially issued alerts but later determined the threat had passed. Tocumen International Airport, which handled more than twenty million passengers in 2025 and ranks among the region's busiest hubs, suspended operations after the first quake but reopened by Friday afternoon. The Panama Canal Authority, steward of one of the world's most critical shipping routes, reported that operations continued normally. Specialized teams were inspecting facilities for damage, but the canal itself remained functional.

This sequence arrived amid a broader pattern of seismic devastation across the region. In June, two consecutive earthquakes—magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5—struck Venezuela's La Guaira state, killing more than sixty-five hundred people and displacing seventeen thousand. In August, a 7.4 magnitude quake in Mexico killed at least two hundred eighty-nine. Panama sits along the Ring of Fire, the twenty-five-thousand-mile arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin where most of the world's earthquakes occur. The country's position at the intersection of the Cocos, Nazca, and Caribbean tectonic plates makes seismic activity routine, though Friday's magnitude exceeded what most residents had experienced in decades. The last major earthquake to cause widespread damage in Panama struck in 1991—a 7.4 magnitude quake centered in Costa Rica that killed twenty-three people, injured five hundred fifty-nine, and left thousands homeless in the border region of Bocas del Toro.

Regional governments responded with support. Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella wrote on social media: "Panama is not alone! You can count on Colombia's support and our full willingness to provide whatever assistance is needed." The U.S. Embassy said it was closely monitoring the situation and accounting for American citizens in Panama, a popular retirement destination. President Mulino, meanwhile, urged calm, cautioning against using the disaster to stoke alarm or disorder. The full scope of damage and any casualties remained uncertain as the day ended, with authorities still assessing what the ground had done.