Mexico earthquake latest: Colima volcano threat debunked as country reels from aftershocks of Michoacán quake

Good afternoon. An powerful earthquake has shaken buildings across Mexico, exactly five years to the day since another quake of similar magnitude killed 370 people.

The US National Weather Service (NWS) said that tsunami waves had been observed, and could reach up to three meters along the western coast of Mexico.

Here’s the NWS’s latest bulletin, issued about half an hour ago.

“An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 occurred near the coast of Michoacán, Mexico at 1805 UTC on Monday 19 September 2022,” the notice said.

“Tsunami waves have been observed. Based on all available data, hazardous tsunami waves are forecast for some coasts.”

It specifically says Mexico may get waves of up to 3 meters above normal tide levels, but other countries and islands such as Hawaii were not likely to be significantly affected.

In a separate bulletin, the NWS added: “Based on all available data, a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami is not expected and there is no tsunami threat to Hawaii.”

An earthquake with a magnitude of between 7 and 8 is more powerful than most, with about 10-20 happening every year according to the US Geological Survey.

The most powerful earthquake ever recorded was the Great Chilean Earthquake in 1960, which is estimated to have been between 9.4 and 9.6 and to have killed thousands of people.

Today’s quake was more powerful than the one that devastated Mexico in 2017 (magnitude 7.3), killing 370 people, and is almost as powerful as the 1985 Mexico City earthquake (magnitude 8), which killed at least 5,000 people and probably more. Oddly, all three quakes occurred on the same day.

But that doesn’t mean this earthquake will be that bad. The actual impact of an earthquake is influenced by many factors, including the location of the epicentre, the depth of the shock, and the geology of affected areas.

Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has said that at least one person has been killed by the earthquake.

Mr Obrador said on Twitter on Monday afternoon that he had been informed by his secretary of the Navy that a person died in Manzanillo in Colima state due to a falling fence in a shopping centre.

He said he is still waiting to hear back from the governor of Colima about some regions of the state becaus communications were interrupted by the quake.

The US National Weather Service now says three sets of tsunami waves have been measured, at sea level gauges off the coast of Manzanillo, Zihuatanejo, and Acapulco.

So far, these waves aren’t as big as feared: the NWS says their “maximum tsunami height” was 0.8m, 0.5m, and 0.1m respectively.

Videos have emerged showing scenes of rattling rooms and teetering pickup trucks across western Mexico, my colleague Graig Graziosi reports.

In a video shared by Diario de Morelos, a publication covering the region near the earthquake’s epicentre, a pair of trucks can be seen shaking violently as seismic activity rocks the region.

John-Carlos Estrada, a journalist at CBS Austin, shared several videos of the quake from people on the ground in Mexico. In one video street signs in Mexico City can seen swaying due to the earthquake.

Read Graig’s full story here.

Despite the palpable shaking, so far there are no reports of major damage in Mexico.

Claudia Sheinbaum, the mayor of Mexico City, said on Twitter on Monday afternoon that there was “no record of incidents in the city”.

Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador confirmed that “in Mexico City there is no serious damage”.

According to local news broadcasters, firefighters closed some buildings in the city in case the collapsed, but residents experienced only “light to moderate shaking”.

Mexico City is about 310 miles away from the epicentre of the earthquake, which happened in a fairly thinly-populated part of Michoacán state.

However, the quake did leave some parts of the central Roma area of the capital without power, according to Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia. Locals stood in the street with their pets in their arms, while tourists were visibly disconcerted.

The American TV network WeatherNation has released a video showing the impact of the quake on a hotel room in Puerto Vallarta, a beach resort city on Mexico’s west coast.

“Oh, s***!” says one of the people behind the camera as lighting fixtures, cupboard doors, and furniture swing and shake intensely. “Oh my God, everything’s really flying around.”

Strange as it seems, this is the third earthquake to strike Mexico on 19 September, though so far it appears to be far less damaging than its forebears in 1985 and 2017.

The quake of 1985 was catastrophic, killing at least 5,000 people with some estimates ranging into the low tens of thousands, while the quake of 2017 killed 370 people.

The inauspicious date may have influenced some of the initial panic that followed today’s quake in built-up areas such as Mexico City. The quake alert also came less than an hour after a nationwide simulation.

“There’s something about the 19th,” Ernesto Lanzetta, a business owner in Mexico City told The Associated Press. “The 19th is a day to be feared.”

Authorities in the state of Colima have said that there is no longer any tsunami warning in force.

"The tsunami alert for the coasts of [Colima] is ruled out at this time, although variations in the waves are expected, We reiterate to avoid approaching the beaches," said the state's Civil Protection agency.

The US National Weather Service (NWS) concurred, saying in a bulletin: "Based on all available data, the tsunami threat has now passed."

It listed various measurements of high waves from sea level gauges off the Mexican coast, none of which showed a maximum tsunami height of more than a meter above normal tide levels.

"This will be the final statement issued for this event unless new information is received or the situation changes," the NWS concluded.