[3] Panama lies within the Panamanian block which is considered to be home to a broad zone of deformation.

A slow southwestern convergence in-between the Caribbean plate and Panamanian microplate, as well as a ductile buckling deformation eastward along the boundary with the North Andes Block, The other escaping deformation along northeast to southwest strike-slip faults within the South American plate and the back-arc thrusting transferred subduction of the Cocos Ridge along most of Costa Rica is what formed the NPDB.

[4] Many have called the NPDB into question due to the lack of volcanic activity and earthquakes below a depth of 70 km within the belt.

Overall, the lack of identification to a fault subducting underneath northern Panama has been the key component of this debate.

Residents who were asleep quickly ran outside to local parks to avoid being hit with falling glass and cement.

While the tsunami mostly struck the San Blas Islands, it was also observed in gauges around Nicaragua, Colombia and Ecuador.

On the island of San Miguel, the wall of a church collapsed as residents struggled to carry statues of saints inside.

A cathedral suffered the same fate when heavy masonry blocks fell from the ceiling ornament of the entrance.

[7] A bronze statue of Christopher Columbus swayed during the quake to the point that its stone pedestal moved four inches from its original position.