Last night, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake hit Costa Rica, seriously injuring two people. Luckily the quake hit in a lowly populated area so there weren’t too many injured. There was no major damage done to buildings but electricity was knocked out in some areas and some rockslides occurred, obstructing a few highways. The 10-mile-deep earthquake was centered 10 miles southeast of Jaco, which is 60 miles southwest of San Jose. Four minutes after the quake, a 5.2 aftershock was felt.

Earthquakes occur when the plate boundaries of tectonic plates suddenly slip past one another at a fault. The location on the surface of the earth directly above where the earthquake starts is called epicenter. An earthquake can sometimes be a foreshock, which is a smaller earthquake that is followed by a larger magnitude earthquake, known as a mainshock, that happens in the same place as the foreshock. A smaller earthquake that follows a mainshock is known as an aftershock. Earthquakes can cause landslides, surface faulting, tsunamis, liquefaction, and flash floods.

The earthquake near Jaco didn’t cause too much damage because it hit a lowly populated area, the magnitude was not too large, and the epicenter of the quake was farther out into the ocean. We would think that there was a risk of a tsunami, considering that Jaco is a coastal town and the earthquake occurred at an underwater plate boundary, but the National Emergency Commission assured there was no chance of a tsunami.

 

The Associated Press. “Magnitude 6.5 Quake Hits Costa Rica Coast, Shakes Capital.” The New York Times, 12 Nov. 2017, www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/11/12/world/americas/ap-lt-costa-rica-earthquake.html.

FEMA. “Why Earthquakes Occur.” Why Earthquakes Occur | FEMA.gov, FEMA, 23 Dec. 2015, www.fema.gov/why-earthquakes-occur.