On the anniversary of two previous disastrous quakes, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck Mexico’s central Pacific coast on Monday, setting off a seismic alarm in the city’s unsteady capital.
The U.S. Geologic Survey, which first estimated the magnitude of the earthquake at 7.5, said there were no immediate reports of serious damage from the quake that struck at 1:05 p.m. local time.
It stated that the epicenter of the earthquake was 37 kilometers (23 miles) southeast of Aquila, close to the border between the states of Colima and Michoacan, and at a depth of 15.1 kilometers (9.4 miles).
The Public Security Department of Michoacan stated that, other than a few building cracks in the town of Coalcoman, there were no initial reports of serious damage in that state.
According to Mexico’s National Civil Defense organization, the navy’s tsunami center had not sent out an alarm since, given the position of the epicenter, no change in sea levels was anticipated. That, however, went against a U.S. Tsunami Warning Center warns. It warned that dangerous tsunami waves might hit coastlines up to 186 miles (300 kilometers) away from the epicenter.
Claudia Sheinbaum, the mayor of Mexico City, stated that there had been no reports of damage in the city.
Less than an hour earlier, in a statewide earthquake simulation commemorating significant, fatal quakes that occurred on the same date in 1985 and 2017, seismic sirens began to sound.
Holding his 3-year-old son, Humberto Garza stood in front of a restaurant in the Roma district of Mexico City. Garza stated that the earthquake alert rang so soon after the annual simulation that he was unsure it was real, like many people lingering around outside following the earthquake.
He admitted, “I heard the alert, but it seemed pretty far away.
Dozens of workers waited in front of the city’s environmental ombudsman’s office. Some seemed plainly frightened.