Wednesday, October 15, 2025

Mexicali and Tijuana area shaken by earthquake ‘swarm’

The cities of Mexicali, Tijuana and Tecate, Baja California were hit by a series of earthquakes early on Monday. 

The first earthquake, which registered a magnitude of 4.8 on the Richter scale, occurred at 12:36 a.m. Its epicenter was located 3 km from El Centro, a city in Imperial County, California.

The first of this morning’s earthquakes occurred in El Centro, California. (USGS)

At 2:32 a.m., Mexico’s National Seismological Service (SSN) reported another earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 and a depth of 10 kilometers southeast of the Santa Isabel municipality in Mexicali.

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), over 20 aftershocks occurred between 12:36 and 5:24 a.m. Monday, with magnitudes ranging between 3.5 to 4.8.   

As a precautionary measure, Baja California Governor María del Pilar Ávila Olmeda ordered schools in Mexicali to close on Monday so that authorities could assess the safety of school infrastructure. 

She added that no damages had been reported so far. According to local media, the Health Ministry reported that the state’s hospitals have been operating normally.

In an interview with the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the head of the SSN Arturo Iglesias Mendoza explained that the term “earthquake swarm” refers to the occurrence of multiple earthquakes in the same region within a short period of time. Typically, these earthquakes have similar magnitudes.

This could help explain the cluster of earthquakes that happened today between Mexico and the United States, which seem to have originated from the San Jacinto fault system, one of the most active faults in Southern California.

With reports from La Jornada, Infobae, Zeta Tijuana and ADN 40 

2 COMMENTS

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
DHS agents

DHS: Mexican cartels offering bounties of up to US $50,000 for attacks on US federal agents

0
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a statement on Tuesday claiming that Mexican criminal networks "have issued explicit instructions to U.S.-based sympathetics, including street gangs in Chicago, to monitor, harass and assassinate federal agents."
The project turns Highway 58 into a four-lane highway and links it with Federal Highway 57 and 85, both of which travel from Mexico City to the U.S. border.

Nuevo León inaugurates first phase of US $1.2B Interserrana Highway

0
Nuevo León Governor Samuel García said the highway modernization project will streamline freight transportation and expedite travel to the northern border, while also cutting travel times from southern Nuevo León to Monterrey.
U.S. visa

More than 50 Morena-affiliated politicians have had their US visas revoked

8
More than 50 politicians from the ruling Morena party have had their visas revoked, along with dozens of officials from other political parties, according to an insider tapped by Reuters.
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity