Mexico City earthquake

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Hot on the heels on the Chiapas 'quake, Mexico City just got hit with a big one.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/fronts/HOME?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME

A powerful earthquake jolted Mexico City on Tuesday, causing buildings to sway sickeningly on the anniversary of a 1985 quake that did major damage to the capital.

The extent of damage or injuries was not immediately clear, but people fled office buildings along the central Reforma Avenue.

Mexico’s seismological agency calculated its preliminary magnitude at 6.8 and said its center was east of the city in the state of Puebla.

Note to self: do not be in Mexico City on 19 September.

[Duckster]

M 7.1 - 5km ENE of Raboso, Mexico

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Aye, Duckster:

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake jolted central Mexico on Tuesday, collapsing some buildings, cracking the facades of others and scattering rubble on streets on the anniversary of a devastating 1985 quake.

The quake caused buildings to sway sickeningly in Mexico City and sent panicked office workers streaming into the streets, but the full extent of the damage was not yet clear. Mexican media broadcast images of several collapsed buildings in heavily populated parts of the city.

The U.S. Geological Survey calculated its magnitude at 7.1 and said it was centered near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 76 miles (123 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Here’s some footage from some people on a boat in a river (NSFW language)[spoiler]- YouTube

Lots of videos of the aftermath being posted now. The big news sites (Fox, CNN, etc.) seem to be getting better at compiling stuff from the internet (thanks Daily Show!) so there’s some footage of the event as well.

Some of it is scary as hell like this huge building twisting and swaying!

[Fiendish_Astronaut]

Looks like the epicentre was near Puebla which I visited less than a year ago. It’s a beautiful city with really lovely people, I’m desperately hoping the damage is not too severe.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

149 known dead now. No idea how many buildings were actually knocked over, but from nearly every article I’m seeing it was more than “a few” and fewer than “all of them”.

Dozens of buildings tumbled into mounds of rubble or were severely damaged in densely populated parts of Mexico City and nearby states. Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said buildings fell at 44 places in the capital alone as high-rises across the city swayed sickeningly.

ETA: Puebla building Falling Compilation; lots of during and after footage in there.

[Broomstick]

Unfortunately, much, if not most, of Mexico City is landfill (the process was started by the Aztecs, it goes way, way back). Landfill + Earthquake = Bad results.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

248 now. Still lots of digging and lifting to do; I’m afraid this ones going to go into 4 figures.

[gnoitall]

Dang. Pictures show lots of pancaked multi-slab buildings. That’s probably the least survivable kind of building collapse. The death toll is going to be breath-taking.

Also, I heard they haven’t had aftershocks. Aren’t those supposed to be inevitable and nearly immediate? I heard everyone down there is on edge because those haven’t arrived yet.

[Sunny_Daze]

We are waiting to hear from family, ranging from uncles to cousins to quite extended (several dozens across multiple generations). It will take a while to hear from everyone I imagine. In the meantime, we wait and hope for the best.

[JackieLikesVariety]

Also, I heard they haven’t had aftershocks. Aren’t those supposed to be inevitable and nearly immediate? I heard everyone down there is on edge because those haven’t arrived yet.

that does seem odd

those poor people!

[Asimovian]

I am apparently unable to cut-and-paste from the New York Times, but I am definitely seeing reports of aftershocks. It would be very odd not to have them. Speculating here, but it’s possible that many of them aren’t being felt in Mexico City, given the distance they are from the epicenter.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

They’ve revised the number of deceased at 223.

National Civil Defense Coordinator Luis Felipe Puente said in a tweet Wednesday that officials now count 223 dead - a reduction of two from the figure they gave earlier.

He now says 93 people have died in Mexico City, 69 in neighboring Morelos state, 43 in Puebla, 13 in the State of Mexico, four in Guerrero and one in Oaxaca.

Determining the number of casualties has been complicated by the diverse places where Tuesday’s magnitude 7.1 quake hit and where victims were taken.

Lots of people rescued yesterday and overnight, tho; presumably still quite a lot who need rescuing.

@Broomstick

Unfortunately, much, if not most, of Mexico City is landfill (the process was started by the Aztecs, it goes way, way back). Landfill + Earthquake = Bad results.

Aye.

The soft soil that lines the ancient lake bed that Mexico City is built on amplified the shaking from Tuesday’s earthquake and increased its destructive force, seismologists say as they try to better understand the quake that has killed more than 200 people.

Scientists are looking at other quirks of the magnitude 7.1 earthquake, including the absence of aftershocks and if it is somehow related to a distant, even stronger, Mexican temblor that struck a dozen days earlier.

Mexico City is built on deep, soft soil that was once the bottom of a lake. Instead of cushioning the city from earthquakes, it exaggerates their effects, said James Jackson, a professor of geophysics at the University of Cambridge in England.

The vibrations, or seismic waves, from the hard rocks below are amplified by the soil and sediments above, making the surface - and the structures built on the surface - shake longer and more intensely.

“It’s like being built on jelly on top of something that is wobbling,” Jackson said.

[Darren_Garrison]

Wow, the quake was so bad that it is trapping fictional people!

(BTW, doing a Google image search for “Frida Sofia” is somewhat interesting.)

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Another one today.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the new, magnitude 6.1 temblor was centered about 11 miles (18 kilometers) south-southeast of Matias Romero in the state of Oaxaca, which was the region most battered by a magnitude 8.1 quake on Sept. 7.

It was among thousands of aftershocks recorded in the wake of that earlier quake, the most powerful to hit Mexico in 32 years, which killed at least 90 people.

Because many already-damaged buildings present had not been shored up or torn down yet (it’s only been 4 days since the last 'quake), more of them came down.

@Bettina Cruz

Homes that were still standing just fell down. It’s hard. We are all in the streets.

Housing is certainly going to be a problem and sanitation issues may soon arise as well. And on top of all that, by now I would imagine that some people are feeling some angst and trepidation about the fact that they can’t count on the freaking planet staying still beneath their feet.

@Bettina Cruz

Since Sept. 7 it has not stopped shaking.