where did the loma prieta earthquake occur?
San Francisco Bay Area
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 The 1949 Ambato earthquake was the largest earthquake in the Western Hemisphere in more than five years . On August 5 , 1949 , it struck Ecuador 's Tungurahua Province southeast of its capital Ambato and killed 5 @,@ 050 people . Measuring 6 @.@ 8 on the Richter scale it originated from a hypocenter 40 km ( 25 mi ) beneath the surface . The nearby villages of Guano , Patate , Pelileo , and Pillaro were destroyed , and the city of Ambato suffered heavy damage . The earthquake flattened entire buildings , and subsequent landslides caused damage throughout the Tungurahua , Chimborazo , and Cotopaxi Provinces . It disrupted water mains and communication lines and opened a fissure into which the small town of Libertad sank . Moderate shaking from the event extended as far away as Quito and Guayaquil . 

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 The first shock of the earthquake occurred at 0 : 16 GMT and was followed by several strong aftershocks . The quake was most widely felt in the Chinandega and León departments of Nicaragua , though it was also felt elsewhere in Nicaragua at Crucero , Managua and San Marcos and at San José in Costa Rica . It was the strongest seismic event to hit Nicaragua since the earthquake of 1972 . 

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 A landslide and 36 major aftershocks of more than magnitude 2 @.@ 5 ( in total , 400 aftershocks ) followed the earthquake . A former Portuguese fortress , built by Admiral Afonso de Albuquerque in 1507 , sustained heavy damage to its eastern wall but otherwise remained intact . 

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 The earthquake was felt from Santa Barbara in the north , to Palm Springs in the east , and south to the Mexico – United States border . It was centered about 7 @.@ 5 miles ( 12 @.@ 1 km ) northeast of Sierra Madre . Hundreds of homes were damaged and at least three roads leading up to Mount Wilson were blocked by landslides . A woman was killed when a steel beam fell at the Santa Anita Park raceway in Arcadia and another woman died as a result of a heart attack in Glendale . 

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 The Armero tragedy ( Spanish : Tragedia de Armero [ tɾaˈxeðja ðe arˈmeɾo ] ) was one of the major consequences of the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz stratovolcano in Tolima , Colombia , on November 13 , 1985 . After 69 years of dormancy , the volcano 's eruption caught nearby towns unaware , even though the government had received warnings from multiple volcanological organizations to evacuate the area when volcanic activity had been detected in September 1985 . 
