At 10:04 am, the Seismic Monitoring System of the Jalisco Civil Protection and Firefighters State Unit detected an earthquake with a magnitude of 3.5 with an epicenter in Puerto Vallarta, which had a slight perception in some areas of the municipality.
The officers of the State Unit carried out various monitoring tours without identifying, so far, any damage.
However, in a preventive manner, the evacuation of 400 people was carried out at the Municipal Administrative Unit (UMA) in Vallarta.
Based on information from the National Seismological Institute, at 10:38 a.m. the magnitude was updated to 4, with an epicenter three kilometers northeast of Ixtapa, Jalisco, with a depth of five kilometers.
The officers continue their tours to finish ruling out affectations by the earthquake.
It is worth noting that Mexico is at constant risk of experiencing an earthquake of great magnitude, such as those that occurred in 1985 and 2017. Despite being the most remembered, they have not been the largest in the country.
On March 28, 1787, the strongest earthquake recorded in the country occurred. Oaxaca, then the central point of the Spanish colony, was the victim of a movement of 8.6 on the Richter scale. That event was so impetuous that it was followed by a tsunami that reached 6 kilometers inland.
Far from considering it an isolated event, the Center for Instrumentation and Seismic Registration (Cires) estimates the possibility that the country will face a similar situation in the near future. In the studies carried out in 2009 to analyze the event, it was concluded that earthquakes of a similar magnitude may develop in the area located between the coasts of Mexico and Central America. There, in the so-called Brecha de Guerrero, there is great geological potential to cause catastrophes of such proportions.
However, it does not take such a great magnitude to wreak havoc. Mexicans keep memories of minor earthquakes, which occurred in 1985 and 2017. On such occasions, the entire capital was paralyzed by the unparalleled consequences of such earthquakes.
On September 19, 1985, an earthquake of magnitude 8.2 on the Richter scale occurred, with its epicenter in the state of Guerrero. It was 07:19 local time (13:19 GMT). At that time, it was thought that there would be no more earthquakes of such dimensions, but a related event occurred exactly 32 years later.
The one in 2017 occurred between the states of Puebla and Morelos at 1:14 p.m. local time (18:30 GMT). The balance of human victims reached 369 deaths.
