Very Strong earthquake 50 km out of the Nicaragua coast – minor damage reported
Last update: June 15, 2013 at 10:12 pm by By Ashish Khanal
Update 22:10 UTC : Some of the aftershocks epicenters arrived close to the coast as can be seen on the image below. These were only the stronger aftershocks.
Some minor damahe at the San Juan church in Leon
Update 21:33 UTC : In Honduras the people ran out of their homes after the earthquake happened.
1 person was slightly injured when a wall collapsed in Chinandega.
A wall also collapsed in the city of Chichigalpa.
Update 21:28 UTC : People living in the capital Managua have said the items fell from the cupboards and shelves. As usual, mobile communications as well as internet services were suspended for a few minutes right after the earthquake. We repeat once more our remark that in case of a major earthquake voice calls should be blocked and only text messages should be allowed. With text messages alone, congestion is almost impossible.
Update 21:21 UTC : We have found also some damage in a school and hospital of San Ramon.
In Chinandega, some walls collapsed without injuring anybody. Chinandega is a city at approx. 105 km from the coast.
We will not be surprised if more minor damage will show up the following hours and tomorrow.
Luckily NO collapsed houses or serious injuries reported so far.
Update 18:52 UTC : Some minor damage has occurred at the San Juan church in Leon.
Update 18:31 UTC : INETER, the seismological agency of Nicaragua reports a Magnitude of 6.3 at a depth of 10 km, in front of Puerto Andino.
Update 18:20 UTC : Our main fear for this earthquakes are eventual landslides. Let’s hope nobody get hurt when they happen.
Update 18:12 UTC : The first aftershocks in the M5 range are starting to happen. A normal process which can take hours, days or even weeks to end. Strong M6 aftershocks are possible too. Even more powerful aftershocks can occur, although these are very rare.
Update 18:08 UTC : The earthquake occurred at a depth of 35 km which explains in part why it was felt also in the neighboring countries. This means that this is a typical subduction earthquake. The earthquake is generated by the accumulated stress from the heavier Oceanic Pacific plate subducting the North American plate. When the stress gets too big, the earthquake is triggered. Subduction earthquakes are normally less dangerous than shallow transform quakes. The subduction fault can well be seen on the map below (red line).
Update 18:05 UTC : Below the expected number of people who have experienced specific MMI shaking. The image shows that 80,000 people will have probably experienced a MMI VI (strong) shaking.
Update 18:03 UTC : The shaking values we are receiving from our readers are merely moderate to strong shaking.
Update 17:58 UTC : The shakemap below shows a coastal area where strong shaking is expected based on theoretical data. Managua should have sustained a moderate MMI V shaking
Update 17:54 UTC : Local INETER seems to be too demanded as we cannot reach the seismic information.
Update 17:52 UTC : USGS has decreased the Magnitude from Mw6.6 to Mw6.5, a good sign
Update 17:49 UTC :We have NO tsunami warning in place for the US West coast
The earthquake is also felt in the neighboring countries.
The earthquake occurred at 79 km out of the NIcaraguan coast
USGS reports a Mw6.6 Magnitude at a depth of 10 km.
Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 6.6
Local Time (conversion only below land) : Unknown
GMT/UTC Time : 2013-06-15 17:39:37
from: http://earthquake-report.com/2013/06/15/very-strong-earthquake-near-the-coast-of-nicaragua-on-june-15-2013/