Major earthquake strikes Mexico on Sept. 19 for third time since 1985, this time a magnitude 7.6; 1 dead

Major earthquake strikes Mexico on Sept. 19 for third time since 1985, this time a magnitude 7.6; 1 dead A 7.6 magnitude earthquake shook the west coast of Mexico on Monday, coincidentally on the same day that two previous major quakes had rattled the country years before.

There were no prompt reports of significant harm from the shake, which hit at 1:05 p.m. neighborhood time, the U.S. Geographical Study said. One individual was killed in the port city of Manzanillo, Colima, when a wall fell at a shopping center, as per President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The U.S. Tsunami Warning Center said a tsunami was possible along parts of the Mexican coastline within about 200 miles of the quake epicenter, but there was no threat for the U.S. West Coast including California and Hawaii, Weather.com reported.

The USGS said the shudder was focused 23 miles southeast of Aquila close to the limit of the Colima and Michoacan states and at a profundity of 9.4 miles.

Michoacan’s Public Security department said there were no immediate reports of significant damage in that state beyond some cracks in buildings in the town of Coalcoman.

Irlanda Villa, of coastal Coahuayana, near the border with Colima, said some walls had fallen, but the big fear was that a tsunami would follow. “We were afraid the sea would go out, but in the end everything is fine.”

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum also tweeted that there were no reports of damage in the capital.

The shudder hit around the same time as significant shakes in 1985 and 2017. Cautions for Monday’s shudder came under an hour after alerts sounded in a cross country tremor reenactment to stamp the past shakes.

“This is a coincidence,” that this is the third Sept. 19 earthquake, said U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Paul Earle. “There’s no physical reason or statistical bias toward earthquakes in any given month in Mexico.”

Upwards of 10,000 individuals were killed in the 1985 earthquake, a greatness 8.0 that struck close to Mexico City. The 2017 tremor, a size 7.1, killed around 370 individuals and caused weighty harm in the Mexican provinces of Puebla and Morelos.

The powerful earthquake’s epicenter occurred in a sparsely populated region of Michoacan state, very near the coastline. In nearby Colima, around 100km from epicenter, very strong shaking capable of “moderate” damage was reported, per USGS data.

In Mexico City, around 500 km away, “light to direct” shaking was accounted for, which is able to do “exceptionally light” harm, particularly to weak designs. There are no known losses or harm yet kept in Mexico City, as per the city’s chairman, Claudia Sheinbaum.

Local news channels reported that firefighters closed some buildings in Mexico City to the public due to concerns of collapse.

One person lost his life in a shopping center in Manzanillo in the western state of Colima after a fence fell, President López Obrador said on social media, citing José Rafael Ojeda Durán, Secretary of the Navy.

Mexico’s Civil Protection Coordinator Laura Velazquez also confirmed the death in a press conference on Monday afternoon.

The shudder’s greatness was at first detailed by the US Geographical Review (USGS) as 7.6. Mexico’s public seismological office later refreshed the size to 7.7 in a question and answer session on Monday.

According to USGS, the quake struck about 37 kilometers south east of the city of Aquila, with a depth of about 15.1 kilometers.

Following the tremor, the Pacific Tidal wave Cautioning Center said that waves arriving at up to 3 meters could hit Mexico. Starting torrent waves have likely currently happened in beach front areas like Manzanillo and Acapulco, and could strike traveler area of interest Puerto Vallarta too.

Tsunami waves less than 0.3 meters could also occur along the Pacific coasts of Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru, according to the organization.

The news came on the fifth anniversary of the 2017 earthquake that killed 216 people in Mexico City.

The focal point of that 7.1-extent tremor was 2.8 miles (4.5 kilometers) east-upper east of San Juan Raboso and 34.1 miles (55 km) south-southwest of the city of Puebla, in Puebla express, the USGS announced at that point.