September 5, 2012 – A Very Strong 7.6 Magnitude Earthquake Struck Costa Rica: The commanding quake hit at 8:42AM at the epicenter. It was 2:42PM in London (GMT). Since this quake occurred at a depth of 41 kilometers (25 miles) there will be damages with causalities, in towns and cities near the epicenter.
The PTWC stated that a tsunami warning is in effect for Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua. Here is the PSWC’s graphic:
According to the PTWC, it is not known if a tsunami was generated. This warning is based upon initial characteristics and parameters of the quake. Here is a close-up of the location, from Google Earth:
Below is the Shake Map from the USGS:
It clearly shows that today’s quake may produce strong to very strong shaking with light to moderate damage.
The following towns and cities were very close to the epicenter (all are in Costa Rica: * Hojancha – 6 miles, * Nicoya – 19 miles, * Santa Cruz – 27 miles, and * San Jose – 87 miles. Casualties and moderate damage are very likely in these regions.
The quake occurred at 10:42AM in New York, 9:42AM in Chicago, 8:42AM in Denver and 7:42AM in Los Angeles. Updates will be posted here, at the Chaos Blog.
This graphic was posted by ABCNews.com:
The article, accompanying the graphic, is below:
A powerful, magnitude-7.6 earthquake shook Costa Rica and a wide swath of Central America on Wednesday, collapsing some houses, blocking highways and causing panic, but there were no immediate reports of deaths.
The USGS said the 8:42 a.m. quake struck about 38 miles (60 kilometers) from the town of Liberia. It was centered about 25 miles (41 kilometers) below the surface. The magnitude initially was estimated at 7.9 and later reduced to 7.6.
In the town of Hojancha near the epicenter, city official Kenia Campos said the quake knocked down some houses and landslides blocked several roads.
“So far, we don’t have victims,” she said. “People were really scared … We have had moderate quakes but an earthquake (this strong) hadn’t happened in more than 50 years.”
There were no initial reports of damage or deaths in the capital of San Jose, said Douglas Salgado, a geographer with Costa Rica’s National Commission of Risk Prevention and Emergency Attention.
Salgado said, however, officials were having problem accessing the earthquake zone or reaching people there and were flying over the area to assess damage to highways and other structures.
The earthquake didn’t knock out phones or electricity in the capital 88 miles (141 kilometers) from the epicenter, Salgado said by telephone, but communications were down near the epicenter.
“There’s chaos in San Jose because it was a strong earthquake of long duration,” Salgado said. “It was pretty strong and caused collective chaos.”
At the Hotel Punta Islita in the Guanacaste area, “everybody is crying a lot and the telephone lines are saturated,” said worker Diana Salas, speaking by telephone, but she said was no damage there
In the coastal town of Nosara, roughly 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of the epicenter, trees shook violently and light posts swayed. Teachers chased primary school students outside at the quake hit. Roads cracked and power lines fell to the ground.
A tsunami warning was in effect for Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a bulletin. It said it was unknown if a tsunami was generated, but the warning was based on the size of the earthquake.
The Master of Disaster
