Punjab, Oct. 10 -- A major earthquake struck southern Panama on Friday afternoon, collapsing a cathedral bell tower, flattening a hotel and triggering tsunami warnings along the Pacific coasts of Central America, Colombia and Ecuador. There are no reported deaths. The Panama Canal, about 200 km from the epicentre, is operating normally.
The numbers, and why they moved
The USGS initially put it at magnitude 8.0, then revised down to 7.6; later coverage cites 7.7. Early magnitude estimates for large quakes are routinely revised as more seismograph data arrives, and the 8.0 figure that circulated in the first hour was the least reliable one.
It hit at about 12:56 pm local time, centred roughly 10 km southwest of Pitaloza Arriba near Panama'...