A powerful earthquake struck the Gulf of California on late Thursday morning, seismologists and residents said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
The 6.5-magnitude earthquake at 11.53 a.m. local time was centered in the Gulf of California, approximately 67 kilometers (41 miles) northeast of La Paz, a city on the Baja California peninsula. It struck approximately 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to the country’s Seismological Survey.
The United States Geological Survey, however, measured the strength of the earthquake at 6.9 on the Richter scale at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles).
The agency estimated that some 500 people may have felt strong earthquake shaking, which could potentially result in light to moderate damage, while more than 2.3 million others may have perceived moderate earthquake shaking.
“Some casualties are possible and the impact should be relatively localized,” the USGS said in a report after the earthquake, which was mostly felt in the city of Los Mochis in Sinaloa state. “Past events with this alert level have required a local or regional level response,” the agency added.
People in coastal areas near the earthquake fled their homes and offices as the quake struck, according to witnesses, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties from the area.
Tsunami experts, meanwhile, said there was no significant widespread tsunami threat as a result of the earthquake. “No destructive widespread tsunami threat exists based on historical earthquake and tsunami data,” the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a bulletin.
“However,” the center cautioned, “earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within a hundred kilometers (62 miles) of the earthquake epicenter.” No tsunami activity was immediately reported, however.
The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center also advised there was no tsunami threat along the California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska coasts.
Thursday’s earthquake was the latest in a series of earthquakes that have struck the Gulf of California since late Tuesday. The first earthquake was 4.7 on th Richter scale, striking about 115 kilometers (70 miles) south of Los Mochis.
Since then, nine more earthquake - including a 5.8 - rattled the area but caused no damage. A geophysicist at the USGS said Thursday’s earthquake was the main event and said the previous earthquakes appeared to be ‘foreshocks,’ the opposite of an aftershock.
Especially given the large number of foreshocks, the geophysicist said, there is a good chance of aftershocks.
0 Comments