The tremor hit at 1:05pm local time, close to the town of Aquila at a depth of 15.1 km in the Mexican state of Michoacán, some 670km from Mexico City and occurred as a result of shallow thrust faulting according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
According to Mexican President Andrews Manuel Lopez Obrador, one person was killed in the port city of Manzanillo after a wall at a shopping centre collapsed.
Powerful 7.6 magnitude earthquake strikes Mexico.
A massive 7.6 magnitude earthquake strikes the Mexican state of Michoacan. According to the United States Tsunami Warning System, a tsunami is possible after a strong earthquake strikes near the coast. pic.twitter.com/1OJJQSa8TY— sync (@syncmedia24) September 19, 2022
There have been no reports of major building damage but the US Tsunami Warning System did issue an alert saying there is potential for a tsunami to form off the Michoacan coast.
In an eerie coincidence, this latest earthquake in Mexico comes exactly fives years after the deadly 2017 Puebla earthquake which killed more than 350 people.
It was a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that hit about 55 km south of the Puebla, shaking the area strongly for about 20 seconds. Over 6,000 people were injured while the total damage was estimated to be USD $8 billion.
However, 32 years prior to the Puebla disaster, there was another major earthquake on September 19 in 1985.
The Mexico City earthquake lasted several minutes with a magnitude of 8.0, hitting at 7 am to cause serious damage that saw the deaths of at least 5,000 people with an exact number of deaths not known. The National Seismological Service put the deaths up to as high as 40,000 people.
#Mexican seismologists revise quake magnitude to 7.4, USGS to 7.6 #Breaking #Earthquake #Deprem #Sismo #Mexico pic.twitter.com/z4TkusgD8J
— Siraj Noorani (@sirajnoorani) September 19, 2022
With three earthquakes on the exact same date in the last 50 years, it would no doubt cause superstition among the Mexican community.
“It’s this date. There’s something about the 19th,” said local businesses owner Ernesto Lanzetta to Reuters.
“The 19th is a day to be feared.”
