Tsunami threat passes following powerful earthquake in Mexico
By Karol Suarez, Brandon Miller, Juan Carlos Paz, Florencia Trucco and Hande Atay Alam, CNN
A powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake rocked the southwestern coast of Mexico on Monday, killing at least one person, with shaking reported as far away as Mexico city.
The earthquake hit just after 1 p.m. EST, with the epicenter occurring very near the coastline in a sparsely populated region of Michoacan state, according to US Geological Survey data.
In nearby Colima, around 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the epicenter, very strong shaking capable of “moderate” damage was reported, while in Mexico City, roughly 500 km (310 miles) away, “light to moderate” shaking was reported.
Local news channels reported that firefighters closed some buildings in Mexico City to the public due to concerns of collapse.
One person lost his life in a shopping center in Manzanillo in the western state of Colima after a fence fell, President López Obrador said on social media, citing José Rafael Ojeda Durán, Secretary of the Navy.
There are no known casualties or damage yet recorded in Mexico City, according to the city’s mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum.
The quake’s magnitude was initially reported by the US Geological Survey (USGS) as 7.6. Mexico’s national seismological agency later updated the magnitude to 7.7 in a press conference on Monday.
According to USGS, the quake struck about 37 kilometers south east of the city of Aquila, with a depth of about 15.1 kilometers (9 miles).
A Tsunami warning was initially issued immediately after the quake but has since been revised.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that the tsunami threat has “largely passed.” Latest readings by the organization also showed a decrease in wave heights.
Waves reaching up to 3 meters (9.8 feet) were earlier predicted to hit Mexico and occur along the Pacific coasts of Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru.
The news came on the fifth anniversary of the 2017 earthquake that killed 216 people in Mexico City.
The epicenter of that 7.1-magnitude earthquake was 4.5 km (2.8 miles) east-northeast of San Juan Raboso and 55 km (34.1 miles) south-southwest of the city of Puebla, in Puebla state, the USGS reported at the time.
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