6.5 magnitude quake in Pacific off Mexico
LOS ANGELES: A strong magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck under the Pacific Ocean early Tuesday off Mexico's coast, the US Geological Survey said.
The quake occurred some 333 kilometers (205 miles) southeast of Mexico's Baja California beach resort of Cabo San Lucas, and while the temblor was at a shallow depth of five kilometers, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center reported there was no widespread destructive tsunami threat.
The USGS revised the quake depth from a preliminary reading of 10 kilometers.
The earthquake struck at 1232 GMT in the region of the Revilla Gigedo archipelago, small volcanic islands off the Baja California peninsula that are sometimes referred to as Mexico's "little Galapagos" because of several endemic plant and animal species. The waters are popular with divers and snorkelers.
The largest island, Socorro, has a Mexican naval base and is home to a few hundred people. The quake struck some 227 kilometers from Socorro, and there were no immediate reports of damage on the island.
Much of Mexico lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a horseshoe shaped region from the southern tip of South America up through Alaska and down through Japan to New Zealand. Most of the world's earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur along the ring.
A historic 8.1-magnitude quake struck off Mexico's Pacific coast in 1985, and while it was centered some 350 kilometers from Mexico City, it devastated the capital, killing at least 10,000 people.
Tuesday's temblor was about 1,050 kilometers from Mexico City.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.