Quake Rattles Mexico’s Chiapas State

A strong earthquake centered 60 miles underneath Mexico’s poorest state shook the southern part of the country Friday night, but there were no immediate reports of injury or serious damage.

Mexico’s second sizable quake in two weeks was centered in the southernmost state of Chiapas and felt as far away as Mexico City, about 425 miles to the north.

The tremor, with a preliminary magnitude of 6.3, started at 8:39 p.m. and was felt for about a minute, according to the U.S. National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo.

The quake occurred rather far below the Earth’s surface, and quake experts said that mitigated its effects above.

“From the depth of the earthquake, I would suspect that we would not get a lot of reports of damage,” said Waverly Person, a geophysicist with the earthquake center.

The quake was centered about 20 miles southwest of Chiapas’ capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez, Person said. It was felt strongly throughout the southern Pacific coast state of Oaxaca and in Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz state on the Gulf coast.

It also was felt in Villahermosa, the capital of Tabasco state on the Gulf coast. The government news agency Notimex said some people rushed out in panic in the streets, but there were also no reports of injuries.

Tremors were felt throughout most of Mexico City, but no damage was seen to buildings downtown.

A 7.6-magnitude quake hit Mexico’s Pacific coast on Oct. 9, killing more than 50 people and causing major damage in the adjoining states of Colima and Jalisco. In the Colima port of Manzanillo, a resort hotel collapsed.

That quake struck only 12 miles below the surface and thus caused more damage, Person said.