By: Steve Dellar | 09-23-2017 | News
Photo credit: @WeatherNation | Twitter

Breaking: 6.1 Earthquake In Southern Mexico – People Fleeing Homes

Buildings shook and people ran as fast as they could as an abnormally big 6.1 aftershock earthquake hit Mexico in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The US Geological survey centre states that the new earthquake originated in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca and had a magnitude of 6.1 (originally estimated at 6.2).

For people this was another sad reminder of the major 7.1 earthquake earlier this week which killed nearly 300 people. Together with the earlier earthquake just off the coast of Mexico in the beginning of the month, that makes a sad balance of 400 lives lost to natural disaster in a month’s time.

Immediately as the quake hit and buildings started to move again, crowds exited from houses and hotels in panic, fearing for their lives.

The national seismological service of Mexico has recorded many thousands of small aftershocks in the first hours of Saturday, many which recorded 4 or greater, so it was expected that something major like this would hit.

So far there are no details on damage or injuries just yet, however the Mayor of Mexico Mr Miguel Mancera explained that residents were still on edge from last week’s quake and therefore the panic seen in the city in the past hour is totally understandable.

Ms Alejandra Castellanos, who had been moved to a nearby hotel by the government after her house had been declared inhabitable says she was "frightened" when feeling the earth shake for the second time in just two weeks. ”I was frightened because I thought: not again."

The reason for Mexico experiencing so many earthquakes is because it sits on a grid of large tectonic plates. Furthermore, Mexico is also positioned right on the so called 'Ring of Fire', an area from the edges of the Pacific Ocean reaching from Australia to the south American Andes along which almost 90% of all the earth’s earthquakes occur.

Source:

http://news.sky.com/story/mexico-hit-by-new-62-magnitude-earthquake-11049403

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