7.4 earthquake hits El Salvador

[somethingfunny]

Macrocane, is everything okay???

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/ ... 0c7yw.html

This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.
Magnitude
7.4
Date-Time
Monday, August 27, 2012 at 04:37:23 UTC
Sunday, August 26, 2012 at 10:37:23 PM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location
12.279°N, 88.530°W
Depth
52.9 km (32.9 miles)
Region
OFFSHORE EL SALVADOR
Distances
111 km (68 miles) S of Puerto El Triunfo, El Salvador
118 km (73 miles) S of Usulutan, El Salvador
123 km (76 miles) S of San Rafael Oriente, El Salvador
133 km (82 miles) S of Santiago de Maria, El Salvador
Location Uncertainty
horizontal +/- 16.5 km (10.3 miles); depth +/- 8.8 km (5.5 miles)



A TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR

COSTA RICA / NICARAGUA / EL SALVADOR / HONDURAS / GUATEMALA /
PANAMA / MEXICO

IT IS NOT KNOWN THAT A TSUNAMI WAS GENERATED.

LOCATION FORECAST POINT COORDINATES ARRIVAL TIME
-------------------------------- ------------ ------------
COSTA RICA CABO_SAN_ELENA 10.9N 274.0E 0526Z 27 AUG
PUERTO_QUEPOS 9.4N 275.8E 0553Z 27 AUG
CABO_MATAPALO 8.4N 276.7E 0555Z 27 AUG
NICARAGUA CORINTO 12.5N 272.8E 0532Z 27 AUG
PUERTO_SANDINO 12.2N 273.2E 0539Z 27 AUG
SAN_JUAN_DL_SUR 11.2N 274.1E 0551Z 27 AUG
EL SALVADOR ACAJUTLA 13.6N 270.2E 0543Z 27 AUG
HONDURAS AMAPALA 13.2N 272.4E 0556Z 27 AUG
GUATEMALA SIPICATE 13.9N 268.8E 0559Z 27 AUG
PANAMA PUNTA_BURICA 8.0N 277.1E 0605Z 27 AUG
PUNTA_MALA 7.5N 280.0E 0652Z 27 AUG
BALBOA_HTS. 9.0N 280.4E 0912Z 27 AUG
MEXICO PUERTO_MADERO 14.8N 267.5E 0606Z 27 AUG

[Macrocane]

Fortunately everything's OK, according to the SNET (official agency in El Salvador) the magnitude was 6.7 but it was 250 km south of the country so they are saying no tsunami eas produced, and no damages have been reported. Anyway, there has been a lot of stress and rumours among the people because of inconsistency between international sources and the SNET gave the official info one hour later.

[somethingfunny]

Thank God for that!

The earthquake being fairly deep (33 miles) made me hopeful that damages would be minimal, but we all know what a 7.4 can do and what the history in El Salvador is. That entire plate boundary has been active lately, between several 5.0+ quakes in the Gulf of California and in Southern California, and this earthquake... I wonder if the eastern Pacific fault lines are about to wake up in a significant way...

[Macrocane]

You're right something funny, the January 13 2001 earthquake was 7.6 and was offshore El Salvador but closer to the coast than yesterday quake. What it's interesting for me is that there is such a big difference in the parameters given by USGS and the SNET, take a look at the information according to SNET:

Date: August 26, 2012.
Local Time: 22:37
Magnitude: 6.7
Depth: 50 km
Latitude: 10.917
Longitude: -88.773
Location: 250 km south of Usulután shoreline
Intensity: II in San Salvador

[Macrocane]

According to the emergency management a little tsunami reached the coast of the department of Usulutan after the main event and 14 people were injured when the waves swept them away but no fatalities were reported. The SNET says that 130 aftershocks have occurred although most of them have not been felt in the country, the strongest aftershock was registered today at 00:08 local time and had a 5.7 magnitude.