News Online
The news railtime online
Mexico City Strong Tremor Shakes Buildings
MEXICO CITY April 12, 2012 (AP)
Mexico City Strong Tremor Shakes Buildings A strong earthquake struck a sparsely populated area in the mountains of western Mexico on Wednesday, and caused tall buildings to sway more than 200 miles away in Mexico City. People evacuated some buildings in the capital, but the city government said there were no victims or signs of major damage.
Authorities in Michoacan state, where the tremor was centered, also had no reports of damage.
The U.S. Geological Survey initially reported a preliminary reading of 7.0 magnitude for the quake, but later downgraded it to 6.5.
A quake of that magnitude is capable of producing severe damage in an urban area, but this one occurred about 41 miles (65.6 kilometers) below the surface and a tremor’s power to cause damage is often dissipated when it is so deep.
The USGS said the tremor was centered in Michoacan state 238 miles (384 kilometers) west-southwest of Mexico City and 88 miles (143 kilometers) northwest of the Pacific resort of Zihuantanejo.
null
AP
People begin returning to a building that was… View Full Caption
Manuel Ortiz Rosete, the Michoacan state civil protection director, said no damage had been reported in major cities and coastal communities of the state.
Maria Luna Garcia, a resident of the town of Arteaga, said she and her children became very scared when the quake hit less than 30 miles away.
“I went out to the streets with my three children, one of them in my arms, just to be safe,” she said. “Fortunately, nothing happened.”
Wednesday’s tremor was the latest in a series of strong shakes to hit Mexico City since a powerful 7.4-magnitude quake hit southern Mexico three weeks ago. But this was not an aftershock of that one, USGS geophysicist Dale Grant said.
“It’s a different earthquake. We are calling it an individual earthquake,” Grant said. “There’s a potential for aftershocks.”
Last month’s big earthquake was felt strongly in the nation’s capital, and it damaged hundreds of homes and killed at least two people near the border between Guerrero and Oaxaca states. Mexico’s seismological service said that quake has been followed by close to 400 aftershocks, including one of magnitude 6.0.
A quake alert application for Blackberrys that Mexico City’s government touted last week did not work Tuesday. Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said the alert system has been working for quakes centered in two southern states and will begin to work for any tremors in Michoacan in the next few days.
Readers Comments (1)
Payday Loans Cash
steve-no, i get it.my point is just that we are operating in such a birrzae environment right now full of weird if not flat out unprecedented monetary influences that the whole thing is a black swan.normal indicators, especially single factor ones, just don’t work.i agree that a drop in V CAN indicate a slowdown (and i believe the economy stalled utterly in h2 2011) but my point was that is does not ALWAYS indicate one.i’m just leery of it as a single factor predictor. it can mean a number of things.witht he kind of m2 growth we are seeing in conjuntion with pretty much zero real growth, one would expect V to drop.might it be dropping more because of a slowdown? yes. but separating that from the drop based on M growth and finding an accurate way to assess price is no easy task.i’m just pointing out that as a single factor, its predictive value is low right now.bond spreads often mean somehting as well, but they are worthless right now as a predictive indicator and have, in turn, made things like the LEI worthless as well.this is the kind of market where you have to tear everyhting down to first principles and do all the math.the traditional 1 factor indicators are badly tainted if not useless. real gdp and cpi are a mess. u3 is an even bigger joke than usual. LEI etc are all being driven more than 100% by bond spreads and equity prices, which, in turn, are being driven by the fed.this is the kind of situation you (hopefully) see once in a lifetime. it would be complex enough if the federal agencies tasked with reporting data were not so determined to distort the facts and lie to us.the census guys seem to be the only ones trying to paint an honest picture.compare their inflation data (on trade) with the BLS or BEA and it’s pretty shocking.the BLS is over 70% lower and the BEA is more like 90% (and just flat out farce).we are in a market where no one knows what to believe or when the tide of easy money might start going back out.it’s going to be pretty sporty for a while.