Major Mexico Earthquake Sparks Tsunami Warning

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A tsunami warning has been issued for Mexico following a magnitude 8 earthquake, which has struck in the Pacific off the southern coast of the country.

According to the United States Geological Survey, the earthquake epicentre was about 100km south-west of the town of Pijijiapan and occurred just after midnight on Thursday local time, the BBC reports.

With the quake reportedly felt in Mexico City, a tsunami warning has now been issued for Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama and Honduras.

Tourist Luis Carlos Briceno told Reuters: "I had never been anywhere where the earth moved so much."

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Senior Duty Seismologist with Geoscience Australia Dan Jaksa told Triple M it was the largest earthquake to hit the region in decades. 

"Back in 1928 they [Mexico] had three earthquakes of similar magnitude, a bit smaller at 7.9, 7.6 and 7.5 over a period of three months in the same region, and within 200 kilometres of this particular event," he said. 

"This region is where two of the marine plates of the Pacific goes into the North America tectonic plate, and we get quite a large build up of forces in that zone. It's an area we call the 'seduction zone'."

Mr Jaksa said it would be likely for the area to be hit by a series of aftershocks, with the full damage bill to emerge over coming days.

"It will come cleared in the morning," he said.

"They're going to have a hard long night ahead. There's certainly been a small tsunami triggered, with reports for a three-metre tsunami on the nearest coastline."

Troy Nankervis

8 September 2017

Article by:

Troy Nankervis




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