A 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck southern and central Mexico on January 2 killing at least two people and injuring others as it interrupted President Claudia Sheinbaum’s first press conference of the year according to state and city officials. The epicenter was located near the town of San Marcos in Guerrero state close to the tourist destination of Acapulco where moderate damage occurred while the tremor caused power outages and prompted building inspections in the capital. Assessments continued into the night with authorities registering hundreds of aftershocks in the hours that followed the main event.
Mexican authorities reported the two fatalities from the earthquake that struck at a depth of 18 kilometers according to U.S. Geological Survey data. Guerrero state governor Evelyn Salgado said a 50-year-old woman died in that region while Mexico City mayor Clara Brugada confirmed the death of a 60-year-old man in the capital and reported that 12 others had been injured there. Brugada added that damage assessments were under way across the city where roads and hospitals sustained impacts as detailed in a Reuters dispatch.
According to Brugada power was restored to 98 percent of the failures reported in Mexico City by late Friday. The mayor stated that two structures were being evaluated for risk of collapse while 34 buildings and five homes were inspected as a preventative measure. A separate tally from Mexico’s seismological service placed the number of aftershocks at 420 by midday local time with the strongest recorded at magnitude 4.7 according to Reuters reporting.
The U.S. Geological Survey confirmed the earthquake’s magnitude at 6.5 and its location roughly 57 miles northeast of Acapulco. Authorities noted various landslides on highways around Guerrero state where initial damage surveys focused on public infrastructure. Residents and tourists in both Acapulco and Mexico City rushed into the streets after the Mexican Seismic Alert System activated ahead of the shaking.
President Claudia Sheinbaum was holding her first press conference of the year in Mexico City when the earthquake struck. In video footage from the event Sheinbaum can be heard saying “it’s shaking” as the alert system rang out in the background before telling those present to “all get out calmly.” The seismic alert system was established following the deadly 1985 earthquake that claimed more than 10,000 lives according to official records from that disaster.
Mexico sits at the convergence of the Cocos North American Pacific Caribbean and Rivera tectonic plates which has produced significant seismic events over decades according to USGS geological assessments. A PreventionWeb analysis of historical patterns from 1787 to 2018 documented 322 earthquakes of magnitude 6.5 or greater in southern and western Mexico with the Pacific coast south of Puerto Vallarta remaining particularly active due to subduction processes. The 2017 magnitude 7.1 quake that killed more than 200 people and collapsed dozens of buildings in Mexico City served as another recent reminder of the region’s vulnerability.
Clara Brugada said in her late Friday update that inspections would continue as aftershocks persisted across affected zones. The mayor’s office coordinated with federal agencies to evaluate infrastructure in Mexico City while Guerrero officials focused on highway clearances following the reported landslides. No tsunami warning was issued after the event which registered maximum intensity of very strong shaking in the epicentral area according to seismological summaries.
