An earthquake with an epicenter in Mexico City rocked parts of the capital on Wednesday night, but there were no reports of injuries or material damage.
A magnitude 3.0 quake whose epicenter was 3 kilometers northeast of the southwestern borough of La Magdalena Contreras struck at 10:20 p.m., according to the National Seismological Service (SSN).
The newspaper Reforma reported that the coordinates given by the SSN placed the epicenter in the borough of Álvaro Obregón.
There have been several low-magnitude aftershocks, including many reported Thursday morning by the SSN with epicenters in the area of the Álvaro Obregón and the La Magdalena Contreras boroughs. The shocks ranged in magnitude from 1.2 to 2.2, according to the federal seismological authority. The latest SSN report as of 1 p.m. was a 1.2 magnitude aftershock that occurred at 10:55 a.m. It’s epicenter was reported as 3 km northeast of La Magdalena Contreras.
Residents of the Álvaro Obregón, Coyoacán, Benito Juárez and Cuauhtémoc boroughs reported feeling the initial quake, which caused some people to rush out of their homes.
“It shook horribly on Insurgentes [Avenue],” one Twitter user said. “It lasted seconds, but it felt very strong.”
“I was lying down, looking at my phone, when my bed suddenly moved,” Adrian Linares, a resident of the Navarte neighborhood, told Reforma.
The Mexico City Ministry of Risk Management and Civil Protection said on Twitter late Wednesday that there were no reports of damage caused by the quake.
The earthquake alarm wasn’t activated because the epicenter was within Mexico City, the ministry said.
The alarm, amplified through loudspeakers situated across the capital, usually sounds about a minute before an earthquake begins to be felt, but it is dependent on sensors in the state of Guerrero. It can give residents a brief window of opportunity to evacuate to the safety of the street and thus avoid the risk of being caught in a building that collapses.
Microsismos, or microquakes, with epicenters in Mexico City are relatively common, but the one that occurred Wednesday night felt significantly stronger than most others, many of which are imperceptible.
The last earthquake that caused significant damage in Mexico City was that on Sep. 19, 2017, the 32nd anniversary of an even more devastating temblor.
The 7.1 magnitude 2017 quake, whose epicenter was in the state of Puebla, claimed about 370 lives in Mexico City and other parts of central Mexico.
With reports from El Financiero, Reforma, Marca and TV Azteca
