A 5.3-magnitude earthquake struck near Loja, Cantón Loja, Provincia de Loja, Ecuador. The tremor was recorded after midnight on Saturday 13 February 2021 at 12:18 am local time, at a shallow depth of 10 km below the surface, Report informs, US Geological Survey.
The German Research Centre filed the event for Geosciences (GFZ), the first seismological agency to report it.
A second report was later issued by the Institute of Geophysics of the National Polytechnic School in Quito (IGEPN), which listed it as a magnitude 5.7 earthquake. A third agency, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), reported the same quake at magnitude 5.4.
Based on the preliminary seismic data, the quake should have been widely felt by almost everyone in the area of the epicenter. It might have caused the light to moderate damage.