On Monday, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck Mexico’s west coast, coincidentally on the same day that two major earthquakes had struck the country years earlier.
There were no immediate reports on damage from major earthquakes, the earthquake that struck at 1:05 p.m. Local time, the U.S. Geological Survey said. In the port city of Manzanillo, Colima, one person was killed when a wall collapsed at a shopping center, according to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The United States Tsunami Warning Center said a tsunami was possible along parts of the Mexican coast within about 200 miles of the quake’s epicenter, but there was no threat to the US West Coast, including California and Hawaii, Weather.com reported.
The USGS said the quake was centered 23 miles southeast of Aquila, near the border of Colima and Michoacán states, and at a depth of 9.4 miles.
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum also tweeted that there were no reports of damage in the capital.
The earthquake occurred on the same day as the great 1985 earthquake and 2017 Alerts for Monday’s quake came less than an hour after alerts were issued at a nationwide earthquake drill to mark previous earthquakes.
“It’s a coincidence,” let it be the third tremor on September 19 said U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Paul Earle. “There is no physical reason or statistical bias against earthquakes in any given month in Mexico.”
About 10,000 people were killed in the 8.0 magnitude quake near Mexico City in 1985 killed.
The 2017 7.1 magnitude earthquake killed about 370 people and caused severe damage in the Mexican states of Puebla and Morelos.
Mexico’s National Civil Defense Agency said that based on historical Mexico tsunami data, discrepancies of up to 32 inches (82 cm) were possible in coastal water levels near the epicenter. The US Tsunami Warning Center said dangerous tsunami waves are possible on coasts within 300 kilometers of the epicenter.
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum tweeted that there were no reports of damage in the Capital.
The new quake alerts came less than an hour after earthquake alerts were sounded in a nationwide earthquake drill that marked severe and deadly earthquakes that occurred on the same date in 1985 and 2017.
“It’s a coincidence” that this is the third earthquake on September 19, said seismologist Paul Earle of the US Geological Survey.
“There is no physical reason or statistical bias against earthquakes occurring in any given month in Mexico.”
There is also no season or month for major earthquakes anywhere in the world, Earle said. But one thing is predictable: people sometimes search and find matches that look like patterns.
“We knew we were going to get that question right away,” Earle said. “Sometimes there are just coincidences.”
The quake was not related to or caused by the drill an hour ago, nor was it related to a destructive quake in Taiwan the previous day, Earle said.