A series of small earthquakes shake Mexico City

A series of nine small earthquakes rocked Mexico City starting early Thursday morning, alarming residents and rupturing a pipe in the Benito Juarez neighborhood.

Five small earthquakes shook the northwestern part of the city before dawn Thursday. Officials reported that the faint earthquakes did not cause any damage.

The sixth small quake was felt at 10:26 a.m., alarming D.C. residents familiar with traumatic earthquakes that occurred in September. They were followed by smaller tremors at 11:41 AM and 11:50 AM. The earthquakes broke a pipe in a building in Naples' Benito Juarez neighborhood, flooding the building, Excelsior newspaper reported.

Then at 1:03 p.m., a 5.2 magnitude earthquake centered in Guerrero triggered a national seismic alert. The Mexican seismic warning system reported alerts in Chilpancingo, Acapulco and Guerrero, as well as in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Morelia and Michoacán. No alert was reported for Mexico City, although some CDMX residents reported hearing sirens and receiving phone alerts.

Half an hour later, a 4.4 magnitude earthquake was reported with its epicenter in southern Veracruz. The Mexican Seismic Alert System said in a post on the social media platform

The epicenter of Mexico City's five small early morning earthquakes — which ranged in magnitude from 1.0 to 2.9 on the Richter scale — was in the Miguel Hidalgo neighborhood, Mexico's National Seismological Service (SSN) reported.

5.2 magnitude earthquake located 40 km south of CD ALTAMIRANO, GRO 09/26/24 13:03:02 Lat 18.01 Lon -100.57 Pf 15 km pic.twitter.com/sbdYbziZw5

— National Seismologico (@SismologicoMX) September 26, 2024

After a morning full of small earthquakes, a 5.3 magnitude quake struck Guerrero, triggering alerts in some areas of Mexico City.

The fourth and strongest of these tremors was felt at 12:39 a.m. in the neighboring neighborhoods of Alvaro Obregon, Benito Juarez and Cuauhtémoc, according to the online news site Animal Politico.

The sixth and seventh small earthquakes – magnitude 2.4 and 2.2 – were centered in the Benito Juarez region, causing some concern about the increasing frequency of these tremors. The epicenter of the eighth small earthquake, with a magnitude of 1.5, was in the Alvaro Obregon region. The Miguel Hidalgo area was the epicenter of a small 1.4 magnitude earthquake just after 2:30 p.m.

According to the SSN website, the six tremors that struck Mexico City were very shallow — about one kilometer below the Earth's surface — a factor that explains the low strength of the quakes.

A government bulletin issued in January explained that earthquakes that originate at a depth of less than 10 kilometers below the Earth's surface are usually of short duration, and their magnitude is usually very low, rarely exceeding 4.0 and generally not even reaching 3.0. According to the Social Safety Network, these tremors can only be noticed by residents within a radius of 2 or 3 kilometers.

Experts say that shallow earthquakes like the one occurring in Mexico City today are usually of low magnitude and are only felt near the epicenter. (Shutterstock)

The Mexico City microearthquakes are primarily due to friction generated by geological fault lines and the resulting energy dissipation occurs over a very short and localized period of time, producing a jump-like sensation.

According to Pedro Vera Sánchez, a geologist at the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN), the result is “a very short and intense tremor, due to the shallow depth, but also due to the short duration of the event, because in the end, the seismic waves emitted are dissipated in this small space.”

The bulletin was issued after nearly 60 small earthquakes occurred in Mexico City last year, including the December 12, 2023 earthquake in Benito Juarez that caused structural damage to several buildings.

According to a December 2023 report published by Monterrey Tech, the size of faults generally governs the length of earthquakes, and since faults in Mexico City are relatively small, tremors will be minimal.

Despite this, Thursday's seismic activity still spooked many residents familiar with Mexico City's history of devastating earthquakes in September. An 8.0-magnitude earthquake on September 19, 1985 (and a large 7.5-magnitude aftershock the next day) killed an estimated 10,000 people, and a 7.1-magnitude earthquake on September 19, 2017 killed 370 victims.

Thursday's phenomenon came just a week after that tragic anniversary, an anniversary that is commemorated annually on September 19 with national earthquake drills.

With reports from Animal Político, Excelsior and El Universal

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