On the night of May 27th at 23:59 (Italian time, 16:59 local) and at 3:30 (20:30 rooms), two strong earthquake shocks of magnitude 5.9 they hit the Mexico about 200 km from the coast. The hypotentro of the SISMI is equal in both cases a 20 km but fortunately No special damage or inconveniences were recorded on the mainland.
As often happens in these cases, however, the values of magnitude and depth can slightly vary according to the body that reports the data. What has been seen so far is the result of the INGV elaborations, while theUnited States Geological Survey (the US geological body) indicates that the first of the two shocks was actually 5.8 and that both would have had one depth of 10 km. They also report a third shock of magnitude as at 4:23 (local time) 4.2 has hit the same area. With the passing of the hours, further analysis on data and values will tend to converge will be carried out.
But from the geological point of view what are the causes of this shock?
To answer this question we can take the following image of the USGS as a reference.
Each point represents an earthquake that occurred in the area: the greater the circle the more the magnitude is large, while the color is related to the depth. Today’s shock occurred along that series that corner corner curved above the writing “Pacific Plate “that is, peaceful plaque. In fact, there is one Oceanic dorsal whose expansion rate is approximately 92 millimeters per year: This movement can create relatively weak but rather superficial shocks, as we can also see from the high presence of white dots in the same area.
