The coincidence of three of the strongest earthquakes that Mexico has had on the same day, September 19, in three different years -1985, 2017 and 2022- arouses the anxiety of Mexicans, who have now begun to fear that date.
"No, not again. My God, not again
," shouted the parents of the children who died during the 2017 earthquake, and who were celebrating the commemoration mass just when they felt the magnitude 7.6 tremor on Monday, as reports the news agency The Associated Press (AP).
The National Seismological Service of Mexico reported on its Twitter social network account that until 3:00 pm on Tuesday, September 20,
849 aftershocks
had been registered from Monday's earthquake.
The most powerful had a magnitude of 5.8, at 03:17 am, south of Tecomán, in the state of Colima, in the west of the country, according to the Mexican newspaper El Universal.
In that state, precisely, two people died: so far the deadly balance of the earthquake.
Laura Velázquez, national coordinator of Civil Protection of Mexico, said Tuesday that both deaths were caused by the collapse of parts of buildings.
Likewise, according to AP, 10
people were injured:
nine in Colima and one in the neighboring state of Michoacán.
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Velásquez added that more than 200 buildings were damaged, including dozens of schools and health centers.
Most of the damage occurred in the Mexican Pacific states.
Some 20 buildings in Mexico City, the capital, suffered damage but, according to the official, it was minor.
"It's very strange, but a lot of people don't like that day anymore
," said Jorge Ornelas, coordinator of a call center.
Many of his relatives, he said, begin to worry about a possible earthquake come September.
[7.4 Magnitude Earthquake Sows Panic in Mexico, Just the Same Day as Other Earthquakes]
"If we continue to think that every September 19 it will shake,
it will continue to happen every year
, because what one thinks is always what happens," added Ornelas, 35.
"The plates break when it touches them"
Xyoli Pérez-Campos, a researcher at the seismology department of the Geophysical Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said there was no physical reason for the coincidence of large earthquakes on the same day.
The expert explained that Monday's earthquake was the result of the "interaction of the Cocos plate with the North American plate", which also generated the 1985 earthquake.
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Five plates – the North American, the Pacific, the Rivera, the Caribbean and the Cocos – pass under the Mexican territory.
"The plates break when it's their turn," Pérez-Campos said. "What are they going to know about the calendar?"
