Pacific Mexico Logs Record Number of Earthquakes Paul Devin - Riviera Maya News
go to original November 1, 2017

September has proven the most volatile month in parts of Pacific Mexico with the National Seismological Service (SSN) announcing a record number of earthquakes.

SNN reports that during the month of September, they have recorded the highest amount of earthquakes so far this year with 5,735. As of October 24, SNN says that the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) has registered 8,678 tremors with magnitudes that have ranged from 1.3 to 8.2 throughout Mexico.

They add that on average, Mexico experiences 40 earthquakes per day, which they say is not uncommon for the country.

A generous portion of Mexico is located on three large active tectonic plates, making it one of the world’s most seismically active regions. It is the relative motion of these plates that cause frequent earthquakes and the occasional volcanic eruption.

Most of the Mexican landmass is on the westward moving North American plate, however the Yucatan Peninsula, including the regions of Cancun and down into Riviera Maya and beyond, are on a completely separate land bridge of the Caribbean Plate.

John Bellini, a geophysicist with the US Geological Survey says the September Mexico quakes originated on a fault within the Cocos plate on Mexico’s western edge. “Whether or not faults rupture depends on the kind of stress that builds up,” Bellini says.

The Cocos plate scoots rapidly under the continental crust of the North American plate, which “builds up the stress and strain at a faster rate, so you’re liable to have more frequent earthquakes because of that,” he explains.

Read the rest at Riviera Maya News

Related: More Than 20 Quakes in Mexico City This Year (Prensa Latina)

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