7 mini-tremors recorded in 2-hour period in Mexico City

July 17, 2019

Mexico City was hit by seven small earthquakes overnight, shaking buildings but causing neither injuries nor damage.

According to the National Seismological Service (SSN), a 2.9-magnitude earthquake with a depth of three kilometers and an epicenter in the Álvaro Obregón borough of western Mexico City took place at 10:59pm on Tuesday night.

And over the next two hours, Álvaro Obregón was shaken by as many as six other small earthquakes, with an average magnitude of 2.4.

The quakes could be felt in some parts of Álvaro Obregón, as well as in the Cuauhtémoc, Miguel Hidalgo, Benito Juárez and Cuajimalpa boroughs.

According to SkyAlert, a company that manages earthquake warning systems, the tremors did not trigger the earthquake alarm because of their small magnitude.

Earthquakes with epicenters in Mexico City are not unusual. According to the SSN, there have been 158 since 1998, 114 of which had magnitudes under 2. The largest Mexico City earthquake took place in 2003, and had a magnitude of 4.0.

Luis Quintanar, a geophysics researcher at the National Autonomous University, told the newspaper TeleDiario that the recent tremors are part of an earthquake swarm, a phenomenon that has not occurred in Mexico City since 1980.