Massive Earthquake in Southern Mexico on June 25, 2020

Southern Mexico was hit by a massive earthquake, which killed at least six people, led buildings hundreds of miles away, causing residents to flee their homes and their workplaces in the open air for protection in the streets. The magnitude of the earthquake was 7.5 in the Pacific coastal area around 14 miles toward the south of Crucecita, a beach city located in the southern state of Oaxaca that was very popular among tourists, according to the Mexico national seismological services.

The United States Geological Survey has however measured the magnitude at 7.4; provisional calculations are not uncommon to differ. The very same region was hit on Monday night by another quake estimated in the US to be 4.9. The National Seismological Service of Mexico stated that 1,571 aftershocks were in effect from early Wednesday. It happened at 10:29 (Local time).

Governor of Oaxaca, Alejandro Murat, said at least six citizens in the region had been killed by the earthquake on Wednesday. The Governor also said that approximately 500 homes and four archeological sites and several schools were destroyed. The toll information and the media reports have revealed scrapes from certain damaged Oaxacan buildings.
The President, Mr. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, told a Twitter video, which he posted early in the evening, about one of his series, relaying a series of updates from Mr. León and others. The president said, a phone hit his ear, “collapsed, broken glass, falling signs, walls, but really nothing serious.”

Mr. López Obrador urged all to be alert and calm for further earthquake warnings. “there would be no more harmful post-shocks, hopefully and I wish for all my soul,” he said. Much of the area adjacent to the epicentre, and more than 90 miles from Oaxaca, the state capital, is the nearest city to the city. Buildings swayed over 300 miles Northwest from Mexico City, but local news reports revealed little harm to the rest of the building façades that had fallen away. The Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico City said no “significant” impacts from an earthquake had been confirmed by either the security command center or officials carrying out municipal overflights.

The earthquake was pronounced “horrible,” by Flora Pedro Mora, the owner of the Mansiones Cruz del Mar, condo-hotel building near Crucecita. “It was like the film,,” she said, shuddering audibly. But she added that the property was not severely damaged, apart from certain wooden beams that were chucked adrift and fell to earth. While some hotels and resorts, known as Huatulco, began to re-open in the last week in response to the pandemic following a prolonged closure, guests were still at Mansiones Cruz del Mar. Petróleos Mexicanos, the state-owned oil firm, confirmed that the earthquake had led to its refinery temporarily shut-down in the port of Salina Cruz, where a fire quickly erupted.

A “potential threat” from a tsunami across the shores of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, the United States’ National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration said, but revoked it a few hours later. After the tremor, tiny seismic waves were reported by the ocean boots — too little to have a significant impact. Effective offshore earthquakes, such as Fukushima, Japan in 2011 and Aceh, Indonesia province in 2004, can cause devastating tsunamis. But the earthquake that are causing of that kind of damaging waves are tough to anticipate.