A magnitude 6.2 earthquake shook southern Mexico on Saturday and was felt in the capital, where seismic alarms sounded, residents ran into the streets and rescuers briefly stopped combing the rubble left by a bigger tremor earlier this week.
The United States Geological Survey said the new quake was relatively shallow and hit near Juchitan, which is a tropical region of Oaxaca state hard hit by another major earthquake on Sept 7.
Already shaken by the two recent earthquakes that have killed at least 380 people in Mexico this month, thousands of people ran out onto the streets again in Oaxaca and Mexico City, some in pajamas when the new tremor shortly before 8 a.m. (0900 EDT).
The Latest on earthquakes in Mexico (all times local):
8:45 a.m.
Quake alarms sounded in Mexico City as a new quake struck, prompting people with fresh memories of this week’s devastating temblor to flee homes and hotels.
Alejandra Castellanos was on the second floor of a hotel in a central neighborhood and ran down the stairs and outside with her husband.
In her words, “I was frightened because I thought, not again!”
At the site of an office that collapsed Tuesday, street signs swayed and rescuers briefly evacuated from atop the pile of rubble before returning to work.
Nataniel Hernandez lives in Tonala, one of the cities hardest hit by an earlier, Sept. 7 quake, which struck off the coast of southern Mexico with a magnitude of 8.1.
He said by phone that it was one of the strongest movements he has felt since then. But he adds, “Since Sept. 7 it has not stopped shaking.”
8:35 a.m.
The U.S. Geological Survey says the new earthquake to strike Mexico had a magnitude of 6.1 and was centered in the southern state of Oaxaca. It initially calculated the magnitude as 6.2
The director of Mexico’s disaster agency says it’s an aftershock of the 8.1 quake that hit on Sept. 7 off the country’s southern coast.
The new quake also swayed buildings in Mexico City, which is trying to recover from a magnitude 7.1 temblor that struck on Thursday, killing at least 295 people.
It’s not immediately clear if the new quake caused damage or injury.
8:15 a.m.
The U.S. Geological Survey says the new earthquake to strike Mexico had a magnitude of 6.2 and was centered in the southern state of Oaxaca.
That’s the region most shaken by a magnitude 8.1 quake that hit on Sept. 7.
It also swayed buildings in Mexico City, which is trying to recover from a magnitude 7.1 temblor that struck on Thursday, killing at least 295 people.
It’s not immediately clear if the new quake caused damage or injury.
An earthquake struck North Korea on Saturday afternoon in the same mountainous location as the country’s sixth nuclear test earlier this month, according to earthquake monitoring agencies in China, South Korea and the U.S.
The Chinese Earthquake Administration said the tremor, which struck at 4:29 p.m. Beijing time, was the result of a “suspected explosion.” It put the magnitude at 3.4. South Korea’s meteorological agency differed in its initial assessment, saying it believed the earthquake was natural. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the magnitude at 3.5.
All three agencies said the earthquake struck in the area in North Hamkyung Province where North Korea has conducted nuclear tests.
“We cannot conclusively confirm at this time the nature (natural or human-made) of the event,” The USGS said on its website.
A test of what Pyongyang said was a hydrogen bomb on that site on Sept. 3 set off a magnitude-6.3 quake. A magnitude-4.6 quake followed a short while later, likely the result of a cave-in, Chinese authorities said.
Like both of the earlier tremors, Saturday’s earthquake struck near the surface, according to the Chinese Earthquake Administration. The South Korean agency said it couldn’t determine the depth of the tremor.
Saturday’s earthquake came less than 12 hours after China said it was cutting oil exports to North Korea in accordance with new United Nations sanctions imposed in response to this month’s nuclear test. It also follows a round of name-calling between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Earthquakes happen every day in the United States. Usually, they’re small—sometimes unnoticeable. One such magnitude 5.8 earthquake happened on Friday off the coast of Northern California. Early reports indicate that there is only a small chance of any fatalities or damage. But there will always be another earthquake in the United States. And eventually, there will be one that causes damage.
Though it's not possible to say exactly where the next big earthquake will happen, scientists at the United States Geological Survey do try to figure out where one could happen.
"Given the current level of the science, we can't make predictions about specific earthquakes," USGS seismologist Chuck Mueller told Newsweek. However, Mueller and his colleagues can look at the patterns of past earthquakes and the Earth's fault lines to get a sense of what to expect in the future.
Cities around Monterey Bay in California, which include Santa Cruz and Salinas, have some of the highest chances of seeing damage from an earthquake in 2017, according to recent USGS estimates. (If this year doesn’t bring a major earthquake to the region, people living in San Francisco are still very likely to experience one sometime before 2032.)
But north of Oklahoma City is also another hotspot, possibly due to wastewater fluids being injected back into the ground at local fracking operations.
No comments:
Post a Comment