Strong Earthquake (7.6 Magnitude) Hits Costa Rica; Tsunami Warning on Pacific Ocean

#ad▼

VIDEO from Nosara, Costa Rica: A powerful, magnitude-7.6 earthquake shook Costa Rica and a wide swath of Central America on Wednesday. The earthquake is reported to have killed two people, and knocked out communications.

A strong earthquake (Magnitude 7.6) hit Costa Rica off Hojancha, Costa Rica at 2012-09-05 08:42:10 Local Time (2012-09-05 14:42:10 UTC) at epicenter.

10km (6mi) NE of Hojancha, Costa Rica
11km (7mi) ESE of Nicoya, Costa Rica
30km (19mi) ESE of Santa Cruz, Costa Rica
44km (27mi) SW of Canas, Costa Rica
140km (87mi) W of San Jose, Costa Rica

One man was killed at a construction site when a wall fell on him. The earthquake caused landslides, knocked down buildings, and caused other building structural damage.

The earthquake magnitude was adjusted from 7.9 to 7.6.

A Tsunami Warning is in effect for Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Peru.

A Tsunami Watch is in Effect For Chile.

Also a a Caribbean-wide Tsunami Watch is in Effect for Brazil, Barbados, Trinidad Tobago, French Guiana, Saint Lucia, Martinique, St Vincent, Dominica, Barbuda, Guadeloupe, Montserrat, Antigua, Saint Kitts, Anguilla, Grenada, Saint Martin, Saint Maarten, Dominican Rep, Turks N Caicos, Bonaire, Curacao, Bahamas, Venezuela, Haiti, Bermuda, Suriname, Aruba, Cuba, Guyana, Colombia, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, Panama, Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, Belize, Nicaragua, Guatemala

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 and at least one death from a heart attack.


View Larger Map
Map of epicenter for Costa Rica earthquake on September 5, 2012.


View Larger Map
Map of epicenter for Costa Rica earthquake on September 5, 2012.

See also …
Pacific Tsunami Warning Center — ptwc.weather.gov

USGS Earthquake event page for M7.6- 10km NE of Hojancha, Costa Rica

TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 001
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 1450Z 05 SEP 2012

THIS BULLETIN APPLIES TO AREAS WITHIN AND BORDERING THE PACIFIC
OCEAN AND ADJACENT SEAS…EXCEPT ALASKA…BRITISH COLUMBIA…
WASHINGTON…OREGON AND CALIFORNIA.

… A TSUNAMI WARNING AND WATCH ARE IN EFFECT …

A TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR

COSTA RICA / PANAMA / NICARAGUA / EL SALVADOR / HONDURAS /
MEXICO / COLOMBIA / ECUADOR / GUATEMALA / PERU

A TSUNAMI WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR

CHILE

FOR ALL OTHER AREAS COVERED BY THIS BULLETIN… IT IS FOR
INFORMATION ONLY AT THIS TIME.

THIS BULLETIN IS ISSUED AS ADVICE TO GOVERNMENT AGENCIES. ONLY
NATIONAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO MAKE
DECISIONS REGARDING THE OFFICIAL STATE OF ALERT IN THEIR AREA AND
ANY ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN IN RESPONSE.

AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS

ORIGIN TIME – 1442Z 05 SEP 2012
COORDINATES – 9.9 NORTH 85.5 WEST
DEPTH – 46 KM
LOCATION – OFF COAST OF COSTA RICA
MAGNITUDE – 7.9

EVALUATION

IT IS NOT KNOWN THAT A TSUNAMI WAS GENERATED. THIS WARNING IS
BASED ONLY ON THE EARTHQUAKE EVALUATION. AN EARTHQUAKE OF THIS
SIZE HAS THE POTENTIAL TO GENERATE A DESTRUCTIVE TSUNAMI THAT CAN
STRIKE COASTLINES NEAR THE EPICENTER WITHIN MINUTES AND MORE
DISTANT COASTLINES WITHIN HOURS. AUTHORITIES SHOULD TAKE
APPROPRIATE ACTION IN RESPONSE TO THIS POSSIBILITY. THIS CENTER
WILL MONITOR SEA LEVEL DATA FROM GAUGES NEAR THE EARTHQUAKE TO
DETERMINE IF A TSUNAMI WAS GENERATED AND ESTIMATE THE SEVERITY OF
THE THREAT.

ESTIMATED INITIAL TSUNAMI WAVE ARRIVAL TIMES AT FORECAST POINTS
WITHIN THE WARNING AND WATCH AREAS ARE GIVEN BELOW. ACTUAL
ARRIVAL TIMES MAY DIFFER AND THE INITIAL WAVE MAY NOT BE THE
LARGEST. A TSUNAMI IS A SERIES OF WAVES AND THE TIME BETWEEN
SUCCESSIVE WAVES CAN BE FIVE MINUTES TO ONE HOUR.

LOCATION FORECAST POINT COORDINATES ARRIVAL TIME
——————————– ———— ————
COSTA RICA CABO_SAN_ELENA 10.9N 274.0E 1510Z 05 SEP
CABO_MATAPALO 8.4N 276.7E 1518Z 05 SEP
PUERTO_QUEPOS 9.4N 275.8E 1536Z 05 SEP
PANAMA PUNTA_BURICA 8.0N 277.1E 1527Z 05 SEP
PUNTA_MALA 7.5N 280.0E 1615Z 05 SEP
PUERTO_PINA 7.4N 282.0E 1631Z 05 SEP
BALBOA_HTS. 9.0N 280.4E 1742Z 05 SEP
NICARAGUA SAN_JUAN_DL_SUR 11.2N 274.1E 1531Z 05 SEP
CORINTO 12.5N 272.8E 1546Z 05 SEP
PUERTO_SANDINO 12.2N 273.2E 1550Z 05 SEP
EL SALVADOR ACAJUTLA 13.6N 270.2E 1604Z 05 SEP
HONDURAS AMAPALA 13.2N 272.4E 1604Z 05 SEP
MEXICO PUERTO_MADERO 14.8N 267.5E 1631Z 05 SEP
MANZANILLO 19.1N 255.7E 1751Z 05 SEP
ACAPULCO 16.9N 260.1E 1757Z 05 SEP
SOCORRO 18.8N 249.0E 1844Z 05 SEP
MAZATLAN 23.2N 253.6E 1848Z 05 SEP
CABO_SAN_LUCAS 22.8N 250.0E 1850Z 05 SEP
PUNTA_ABREOJOS 26.7N 246.4E 1959Z 05 SEP
COLOMBIA BAHIA_SOLANO 6.3N 282.6E 1633Z 05 SEP
TUMACO 1.8N 281.1E 1656Z 05 SEP
BUENAVENTURA 3.8N 282.8E 1657Z 05 SEP
ECUADOR ESMERELDAS 1.2N 280.2E 1650Z 05 SEP
LA_LIBERTAD 2.2S 278.8E 1711Z 05 SEP
BALTRA_IS. 0.5S 269.7E 1721Z 05 SEP
GUATEMALA SIPICATE 13.9N 268.8E 1650Z 05 SEP
PERU TALARA 4.6S 278.5E 1733Z 05 SEP
PIMENTAL 6.9S 280.0E 1842Z 05 SEP
CHIMBOTE 9.0S 281.2E 1900Z 05 SEP
LA_PUNTA 12.1S 282.8E 1903Z 05 SEP
SAN_JUAN 15.3S 284.8E 1921Z 05 SEP
MOLLENDO 17.1S 288.0E 1954Z 05 SEP
CHILE ARICA 18.5S 289.7E 2013Z 05 SEP
IQUIQUE 20.2S 289.9E 2015Z 05 SEP
ANTOFAGASTA 23.3S 289.6E 2028Z 05 SEP

BULLETINS WILL BE ISSUED HOURLY OR SOONER IF CONDITIONS WARRANT.
THE TSUNAMI WARNING AND WATCH WILL REMAIN IN EFFECT UNTIL
FURTHER NOTICE.

THE WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER WILL ISSUE PRODUCTS
FOR ALASKA…BRITISH COLUMBIA…WASHINGTON…OREGON…CALIFORNIA.

Search Amazon …

Search for products sold on Amazon:

Arlingtoncardinal.com is an Amazon Associate website, which means that a small percentage of your purchases gets paid to Arlingtoncardinal.com at no extra cost to you. When you use the search boxes above, any Amazon banner ad, or any product associated with an Amazon banner on this website, you help pay expenses related to maintaining Arlingtoncardinal.com and creating new services and ideas for a resourceful website. See more info at Arlingtoncardinal.com/AdDisclosure