A smaller Ecuadorian earthquake in 1949 killed nearly 20 times more people
Published in
2 min readApr 18, 2016
The 6.8 magnitude Ambato quake wiped out entire villages
By Tim Townsend
The earthquake that killed at least 272 people Saturday night along Ecuador’s northwestern coast measured 7.8 on the Richter scale. Reports said the tremors were felt 150 miles away in Quito, and in parts of Peru and Colombia.
Ecuador is earthquake-prone, and in 1949 a major, 6.8-magnitude quake flattened several eastern Andean villages over a 1,500-mile area and killed more than 5,000 people.
“In the cities buildings tottered and fell on terrified people as the earth rolled beneath them,” Life magazine reported in its August 22, 1949 issue. “Thousands more were buried by rock slides thundering from the mountains.”
