Central Mexico earthquake

For the second time in two weeks, a powerful earthquake struck Mexico, toppling buildings, cracking highways and killing hundreds of people.

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake rocked central Mexico on Tuesday, killing more than 200 people, leveling buildings and knocking out power to millions.

Mexico is still recovering from a magnitude 8.1 quake that hit earlier this month off the country’s southern coast. That quake, which killed at least 61 people, was the strongest quake to hit the country in 100 years, according to President Enrique Peña Nieto.

Although the two earthquakes struck hundreds of miles apart, they have some similarities, experts say. The 7.1-magnitude earthquake Tuesday was about 650 kilometers from the epicenter of the 8.1-magnitude earthquake that hit September 8, said Jana Pursley, a geophysicist with the US Geological Survey. Both earthquakes seem to be a result of the rupture of fault lines within the North American tectonic plate.

[CNN]

This entry was posted in Humanitarian Aid by Grant Montgomery.