On the anniversary of two previous earthquakes, Mexico is shaken by a 7.6 magnitude quake.

Youssef Shnino
19 Sep, 2022

On the anniversary of two previous earthquakes, Mexico is shaken by a 7.6 magnitude quake.

On the anniversary of two previous earthquakes, Mexico is shaken by a 7.6 magnitude quake.
On Monday, September 19, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake was detected in Mexico City, prompting many to assemble outside. According to the US Geologic Survey, the quake struck at 1:05 p.m. local time and was centered near the border of Colima and Michoacan states.
Fernando Llano/AP

MEXICO CITY — On the anniversary of two previous terrible quakes, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake jolted Mexico's central Pacific coast on Monday, killing at least one person and sending off a seismic warning in the frightened capital.

There were early indications of building damage from the quake, which struck at 1:05 p.m. local time, according to the US Geological Survey, which had first estimated the magnitude at 7.5.

The quake was centered 37 kilometers (23 miles) southeast of Aquila, on the border of the states of Colima and Michoacan, and had a depth of 15.1 kilometers (9.4 miles).

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced on Twitter that the secretary of the navy informed him that one person was murdered after a wall at a mall fell in the coastal city of Manzanillo, Colima.

Buildings were damaged in Coalcoman, Michoacan, near the quake's epicenter, although there were no early reports of casualties.

"It started gently and then became incredibly forceful and lasted and continued until it started to cease," Carla Cárdenas, 16, of Coalcoman, said. Cárdenas bolted from her family's hotel and congregated with neighbors.

She stated that the hotel and several of the residences down the street had cracked walls and that sections of facades and roofs had broken off.

"The roof of the parking area at the hotel boomed and collapsed to the ground, and there are holes in the walls on the second floor," Cárdenas explained.

She stated that the town's hospital had been severely damaged, but she had not heard of any injuries.

According to Mexico's National Civil Defense organization, fluctuations of up to 32 inches (82 cm) in coastal water levels around the epicenter were conceivable based on historical data from tsunamis in Mexico. According to the US Tsunami Warning Center, dangerous tsunami waves were likely for coasts within 186 miles (300 kilometers) of the epicenter.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum stated that no damage has been reported in the capital.

The fresh quake was detected less than an hour after seismic sirens wailed in a statewide earthquake simulation commemorating large, fatal quakes that occurred on the same day in 1985 and 2017.

"It's a coincidence," said US Geological Survey seismologist Paul Earle, that this is the third Sept. 19 earthquake. "In Mexico, there is no physical explanation or statistical bias toward earthquakes in any given month."

Earle said that there is no season or month for large earthquakes anywhere on the planet. But there is one thing that is predictable: people seek and occasionally find coincidences that appear to be patterns.

"We anticipated we'd receive this inquiry right away," Earle remarked. "Sometimes it's simply coincidence."

Earle said the quake was neither tied to or triggered by the exercise an hour earlier, nor was it related to a severe temblor in Taiwan the day before.

Humberto Garza was carrying his 3-year-old kid outside a restaurant in Mexico City's Roma area. Garza, like many others milling about outdoors after the earthquake, claimed the earthquake alarm went off so fast after the yearly simulation that he wasn't convinced it was genuine.

"I heard the alert, but it seemed far away," he explained.

Hundreds of staff waited outside the city's environmental ombudsman's office. Some people were noticeably shaken.

Power went out in portions of the city, including stoplights, further clogging the capital's infamous gridlock.

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