Earthquake in Guerrero – Oaxaca, Mexico – 500 houses severely damaged at least – but slight damage for such a quake
Last update: March 20, 2012 at 9:33 pm by By Armand Vervaeck and James Daniell
Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 7.9 (preliminary)
UTC Time : Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 18:02:53 UTC
Local time at epicenter : Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 12:02:53 PM at epicenter
Depth (Hypocenter) : 10 km
Geo-location(s) :
52 km (32 miles) NE (39°) from Ometepec, Guerrero, Mexico
53 km (33 miles) WSW (241°) from Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca, Mexico
193 km (120 miles) E (83°) from Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico
Update: 2 buildings in the historic center of Mexico city have also been reported damaged.
– Update: No casualties have been reported from Omotopec which is good news given the damage.
– Update: We have reports from Mexican radio (from Carlos) that 500 houses have been severely damaged or destroyed in Guerrero. As expected Omotopec has had a lot of this damage.
– Update: Currently only 60 houses are still being reported destroyed in the epicentral region with an extra 400 damaged.
– From Carlos Robles – our US/Mexico Earthquake correspondent:- A wall collapsed leaving one with serious injuries in Mexico City. Damage has been reported in Ciudad de Mexico like cracked roads, damaged buildings, and the bridge that collapsed in a bus with no casaulties. Damage has been reported in Oaxaca with cracked roads and damaged buildings.
– A highway in Oaxaca has had a landslide cover a small section. It only caused slight damage in the form of a small car crash. Apart from that, other roads are all clear according to authorities.
– Earlier reports of a footbridge collapsing onto a bus in Mexico City were incorrect. In fact, it was the 10 meters of concrete guard rail of the footbridge which collapsed. No people were killed.
– Update : 1 person has been injured in Colonia Juarez – of a nervous breakdown. In addition a staircase collapsed in a police building and there are reports of minor injuries. Other than that only minor damage has been reported. Some bridges have been closed around Mexico as a precaution.
– Update : At least 60 houses have been destroyed in Guerrero. Most of these are expected to be old adobe houses. Omotopec is expected to have major damage. Damage will likely be in the tens of millions of US dollars.
2.5 million users have had outages in their electricity following the earthquake. After 90 minutes, 1.5 million users were restored to the grid. In the Eastern control area partial outages in the cities of Poza Rica and Coatzacoalcos and parts of the states of Puebla, Tlaxcala and Morelos. CFE crews will continue working to restore power as quickly as possible in the affected areas.
– Update : We notice, as expected, a lot of aftershocks, the strongest ones ranging from M 4.7 to M 5.3.
– Update : – President Calderon has just confirmed that so far NO lives have been lost.
– Power plants are working normally
– The President has also declared that NO major damage was inflicted
– The Mexican Seismological service is maintaining a Magnitud of 7.8
– Update : YouTube video of the shaking. The shaking we see on the video was more than 300 km from the epicenter! Swaying is more accentuated in high rise buildings.
I have felt it Map courtesy USGS
– Update : At 13:52 local time (1 hour 50 minutes after the earthquake), NO fatalities have been reported so far, a very good sign !
– Update : New Intensity calculations(based on the M 7.4 Magnitude) are giving the following impact :
182,000 people MMI VII (very strong shaking)
596,000 people MMI VI (strong shaking)
2,736,000 people MMI V (moderate shaking)
32 million people MMI IV (light shaking)
– Update : USGS has further decreased the Magnitude from 7.6 to 7.4, a lot weaker than the initially reported 7.9. The depth has been recalculated to 20 km. All this explains the lesser than originally expected intensity.
– Update : GOOD preliminary news : Only light damage is currently reported out of the epicenter area. Based on our own experience, we think it is far too soon to have a final estimate, but after such an earthquake, we like to hear that the damage is not general.
– Update : A concrete walkway bridge has collapsed on a microbus. No reports yet about victims. Some people have been hospitalized by a nervous breakdown.
– Update : Everybody in the country could be found on the streets after evacuating houses and buildings. The situation on the roads of the bigger cities is simply chaotic. Everybody wants to drive back home.
– Update : NOAA has released the following Tsunami bulletin : A DESTRUCTIVE WIDESPREAD TSUNAMI WAS NOT GENERATED BASED ON EARTHQUAKE AND HISTORICAL TSUNAMI DATA. HOWEVER, THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY OF SOME LOCAL TSUNAMI EFFECTS. THIS EARTHQUAKE IS LOCATED INLAND FROM THE COAST.
GDACS another agency who calculates tsunami heights has calculated that a max. tsunami wave of 0.1 meter may have occurred, nothing to be scared of.
– Update : the closest airports to the epicenter are Pinotepa Nacional (77km) and Ta Lo De Soto (71km)
– Update : there are NO hydrodams or NO Nuclear Plants in the vicinity of the epicenter
– Update : GDACS reports that the nearest populated places are: Coyul (16km), Putla de Guerrero (18km), Cuitlapa (15km), Laguna (3km). The closest civilian airport is Pinotepa Nacional (77km).
– Update : The area has currently a lot of aftershocks as could be expected. These aftershocks will go on for many hours and even days. Gradually they will get weaker but sometimes even M 6.x can be reached. People in the epicenter area will have to spend the night on the streets out of fear for aftershocks.
– Update : This earthquake is a subduction earthquake, which means that the Oceanic plate is gliging below the North American plate and often hangs for a while. When the accumulated energy is suddenly freed a massive earthquake is generated.
for more information and updates, go to: http://earthquake-report.com/2012/03/20/massive-extremely-dangerous-earthquake-in-guerrero-mexico/: