Strong Quake Hits Costa Rica – Tsunami warning issued

Buildings rattled 90 miles away in San Jose.

A powerful 7.6-magnitude quake has struck about five miles northeast of Samara, Costa Rica, reports the USGS. Samara is located on the Pacific side of the country, some 90 miles west of San Jose. The earthquake, even at that distance, rattled buildings and cut power in some areas of San Jose.

The  Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a warning for Pacific coastlines of Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama. It had earlier warned of tsunamis for as far afield as Mexico and Peru.

Although there were no immediate reports of casualties, locals were shocked by the force of the quake, which was felt as far away as Managua, the capital of neighboring Nicaragua.

“People are very frightened and staying in their homes,” said Eliecer Gonzalez, commercial director of a local newspaper in the Guanacaste region. “We are very isolated and have no power.”

“We have had moderate quakes but an earthquake (this strong) hadn’t happened in more than 50 years.” said city official Kenia Campos in the town of Hojancha a few miles (kilometers) from the epicenter.

“There’s chaos in San Jose because it was a strong earthquake of long duration,” said Douglas Salgado, a geographer with Costa Rica’s National Commission of Risk Prevention and Emergency Attention. “It was pretty strong and caused collective chaos.”

It was the biggest earthquake in Costa Rica since a 7.6 quake in 1991 left 47 dead. More recently, 40 people died in a 6.1 magnitude quake in January 2009.

According to the USGS, this M 7.6 earthquake beneath the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica, occurred as the result of thrust faulting on or near the subduction zone interface between the Cocos and Caribbean plates. At the latitude of this earthquake, the Cocos plate moves north-northeast with respect to the Caribbean plate at a velocity of approximately 77 mm/yr, and subducts beneath Central America at the Middle America Trench.

Over the past 40 years, the region within 250 km of the September 5th earthquake has experienced approximately 30 earthquakes with M 6 or greater; two of these were larger than M 7, and neither caused documented fatalities. The first was a M 7.2 in August of 1978, 9 km to the north-northeast of the September 5th event; the second had a magnitude of M 7.3, and struck a region just over 50 km to the east-southeast in March 1990. The closest earthquake causing fatalities in recent history was the M 6.5 April 1973 earthquake approximately 80 km to the northeast, which resulted in 26 fatalities and over 100 injuries.

The quake struck (6 miles) NE of Hojancha, Costa Rica, 11 km (6 miles) ESE of Nicoya, Costa Rica, 30 km (18 miles) ESE of Santa Cruz, Costa Rica, and 44 km (27 miles) SW of Canas, Costa Rica

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/quake-hits-costa-rica/2012/09/05/id/450853

http://www.newser.com/story/153499/79-quake-hits-costa-rica.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=united

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000cfsd#summary

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc000cfsd.php

Thanks to Benjamin Napier and Laurel for these links

“The Ring of Fire is rattling,” says Benjamin.