MEXICO | The earth shook again overnight from Wednesday to Thursday in western Mexico, even in the capital Mexico City where two people were killed, three days after a previous earthquake which also killed two people.
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The magnitude 6.9 quake recorded shortly before 1:20 a.m. (6:20 GMT) is the strongest aftershock from Monday’s quake, according to the National Seismological Service. The epicenter was again in the west of the country, near the Pacific.
In Mexico City, a woman died by falling “down the stairs at home” after the activation of the anti-seismic alert, said Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, quoting the Citizen Security Services on Twitter. A man died of a heart attack.
In the capital, the alarm woke up the inhabitants or emptied the last restaurants still open.
Many rushed to the streets in their pajamas upon hearing the shrill ringing, AFP found.
A strong shock was then felt in the city which has nine million inhabitants, 25 million with the outskirts of the EdoMex (Estado de Mexico).
The epicenter was located in the state of Michoacan, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Twitter, adding that four western states had been affected – Michoacan, Colima, Jalisco, Guerrero – as well as the capital. “So far, no damage has been reported.”
Improbable coincidence
The mayor of Mexico City said that official helicopters were flying over the city to spot any damage.
The epicenter was located 84 kilometers from the town of Coalcoman, the National Seismological Service said.
The epicenter of Monday’s magnitude 7.7 earthquake was also located in Michoacan, near the Pacific. Two people were killed in Colima state and some 3,000 buildings were damaged, according to the seismological service.
Monday’s earthquake occurred on the anniversary of the two deadly earthquakes of 1985 and 2017, by a very unlikely coincidence.
The tremor hit the capital Mexico City 46 minutes after millions of people took part in a prevention exercise organized each year by civil protection to mark the anniversary of the earthquakes of September 19, 1985 and 2017.
On September 19, 2017, a magnitude 7.1 quake killed 369 people. Whole buildings had collapsed in the center of Mexico City.
On September 19, 1985, an earthquake of magnitude 8.1 devastated the center of the capital, causing the death of more than 10,000 people.
The probability of a third earthquake on September 19 was 0.000751%, according to scientist José Luis Mateos quoted by Mexican newspapers.
“There is nothing that tells us scientifically that September 19 is a special day for an earthquake to occur,” said the mayor of Mexico City, a physicist by training.
Located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area where the meeting of tectonic plates causes high seismic activity, Mexico lives under the threat of large-scale earthquakes.
The city of Mexico, at more than 2,000 meters above sea level, is particularly vulnerable in its part built on the ancient pre-Hispanic lake, covered over the centuries.