Dangerous earthquake near Nicoya, Costa Rica
Last update: June 23, 2013 at 9:54 pm by By Ashish Khanal
Update 21:29 UTC : The National Emergency Commission reported that emergency committees across the country have been reporting so far (ER : to early for a serious estimate) falling objects in homes and offices, but no injured people.
Cellular network was down a couple of minutes after the earthquake (this happens over and over gain – authorities should enforce only the use of Text after powerful earthquakes).
Electricity was down several minutes in the Alajuela area.
Update 21:03 UTC : After looking into the diverse data so far and taking into account the historic earthquakes in the area, the location of the epicenter in a wilderness area and the MMI values we are receiving in the back office, we expect none to very minor damage or injuries. The biggest damage potential will come from landslides who almost certainly have been triggered.
Update 21:01 UTC : Oviscori Costa Rica is locating the epicenter closer to the coast. This implicates a greater distance from Nicoya which is good news if confirmed, but at the same time closer to Nosara. Nosara I Have Felt It reports are mentioning the strongest shaking values, most of them MMI VI = strong shaking
Update 20:59 UTC : Seismograph in Horizontes Guanacaste
Update 20:55 UTC : The epicenter itself (all 3 agencies) is very sparsely populated. If the Costa Rican parameters are confirmed, we would not exclude damage in the Nicoya area.
Update 20:48 UTC : The direct epicenter area should be wilderness area, but Nicoya is very near (10 km). Nicoya is a city with a population of 13334 (last census)
Nicoya surroundings – Image courtesy Arturo Rodriguez G
Update 20:45 UTC : Very hard to estimate the chance on damage. The 3 agencies we are reporting are having the same Magnitude but epicenters are seriously different and depths are even more different (18 to 53 km !). OVISCORI Costa Rica maintains his M5.8 at 11 km.
When you are one of the people who experienced this earthquake, please fill in the form behind “I Felt A (not Listed) Earthquake”. Thank you.
Update 20:38 UTC : The reported earthquake parameters from the international agencies are a lot better than those from Costa Rica itself. M5.2 at a depth of 40 km may generate minor damage here and there but a M5.8 at 11 km has a lot more damaging power.
Update 20:33 UTC : The same area was hit on September 5 2012 with a powerful M7.6 earthquake at a depth of 40 km. This earthquake was damaging but luckily nobody was killed. Read our in-depth report about this earthquake here.
Update 20:29 UTC : Costa Rica has a high resistance against earthquakes and even massive quakes are often without fatalities.
Update 20:21 UTC : Earthquake Report calls this earthquake as very dangerous due to the shallow depth and the high risk of landslides.
Oviscori Costa Rica reports a powerful earthquake with a preliminary Magnitude of 5.8 at a very shallow depth of 11 km. 2 km al Noroeste de ZARAGOZA (SANTA ROSA) de Nicoya de Guanacaste
10km (6mi) WSW of Nicoya, Costa Rica
18km (11mi) SSE of Santa Cruz, Costa Rica
60km (37mi) S of Liberia, Costa Rica
60km (37mi) SW of Canas, Costa Rica
160km (99mi) W of San Jose, Costa Rica
Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 5.1
Local Time (conversion only below land) : 2013-06-23 14:00:41
GMT/UTC Time : 2013-06-23 20:00:41
from: http://earthquake-report.com/2013/06/23/moderate-earthquake-costa-rica-on-june-23-2013/