2023-07-20 07:20:36
Imagen: Alex Pena/Anadolu Agency/picture alliance
A 6.8-magnitude tremor shook major cities in El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala, where it sparked panic but left no significant damage or casualties.
A 6.8 magnitude 6.8 earthquake with an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean off El Salvador, was recorded this Tuesday (07.18.2023) causing scenes of panic in major cities of Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, without causing victims or damage .
A preliminary report from the Salvadoran Ministry of the Environment recorded the shock at 6:22 p.m. local (02:22 GMT) and its epicenter 66 kilometers south of El Espino beach, in the department of Usulután, some 200 km southeast of San Salvador, it said. the official report.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) set the magnitude at 6.5 degrees.
The Salvadoran ministry specified that the focal depth of the telluric movement was 51 km, in the subduction zone of the Pacific where the Cocos and Caribbean plates collide.
“Based on the revised data: the non-existence of a tsunami threat for El Salvador is maintained,” said the Ministry of the Environment on Twitter.
Civil Protection of El Salvador reported that it carries out “monitoring” in different areas of the country. The quake was felt in most of El Salvador, as well as in Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala.
Power and telephone outages
The Salvadoran authorities did not report, for the moment, neither victims nor material damages. Meanwhile, users of social networks reported that electricity and the telephone network were interrupted in some areas.
Meanwhile, the local Salvadoran newspaper La Prensa Gráfica reported minor damage to the infrastructure of the San Juan de Dios Hospital in the city of San Miguel.
In Honduras, the early warning coordinator of the Permanent Contingency Commission, Juan José Reyes, told the press that “the movement was felt throughout the country,” and with “greater intensity” in the Gulf of Fonseca, which they share with El Salvador and Nicaragua.
In Nicaragua, the quake was strongly felt in Managua, the capital, and along the Pacific coast, although no casualties were immediately reported in that country.
The Central American region registers high seismicity due to being located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, as well as due to the activity of its volcanic chain.
jc (efe, afp, ap, Reuters, Telenoticias Megavisión)
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