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EARTHQUAKE today! 5.9

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ILuvCR
  7/24/2014 18:12 EST

I felt the strong jolt, my house actually hopped!

EARTHQUAKE!
Puriscal, a community just outside San Jose in the mountains to the west, was the epicenter of a 5.9 earthquake today. The quake was sizable and shook up and down rather than a rolling side to side motion.

Today’s earthquake was felt throughout the entire country with news stations repeatedly showing video after video of footage of the quake.

Supermarkets had products strewn about and tossed many items to the floor making the aisles of many supermarkets, a mess of broken goods.

The Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismolóigo de Costa Rica (Oviscori) reports that the epicentre was precisely 6km north of Puriscal.

The location reported by the Ovsicori is latitude: 9.8956 longitude: -84.3329 with a depth of 65 kilometres.

Puriscal is located west of San José, south of Orotina.

Reports from the area of the epicentre tell of people being nervous and concerned with flashbacks of the devastation of the Cinchona earthquake in January 2009.

Ah hour after the quake, electricity is still out in area of Alajuela and the cell phone networks continue to go on and off.

Pura Vida!

shermanwc
  7/24/2014 18:26 EST

It's strange, but the USGS website that shows worldwide earthquakes over 2.5 magnitude does not show this earthquake yet (over 3 hours after the event) nor another earthquake site for CR. But Tico Times does have an article about it.

Not sure why it is not being reported on the seismic activity sites.

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ILuvCR
  7/24/2014 18:36 EST

Did you feel it? I sure did.

Just part of the excitement of living in "paraiso".

Pura Vida!

ILuvCR
  7/24/2014 18:37 EST

Did you feel it? I sure did.

Just part of the excitement of living in "paraiso".

Pura Vida!

Kohl
  7/24/2014 18:42 EST

We are in the interior of Guanacaste, so we never felt a thing. Hope there is no damage to speak of, as they haven't fixed the damage caused by 'last big one' yet

shermanwc
  7/24/2014 19:24 EST

ILuvCR:

I looked at the website you referred to about the earthquake - perhaps it was updated after you reported the data, but it currently shows the magnitude as 4.7 (around 12:48 pm today) and centered very close to Juan Santamaria airport.

I also looked at info on the USGS website and noticed that they do not report all earthquakes outside of the USA that are below 5.0.

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MarshaWaddelow
  7/24/2014 19:24 EST

We have a company mining for stone across our canyon. They occasionally blast which gives us
a big boom and shake. Quick and Over. When I felt the first one years ago I was disappointed,'
Not at all what I expected.

Sounded like when I was a kid and planes broke the sound barrier. A big boom.... things would shake and a dish or two would fall and break. No big deal. After all its Costa Rica.

MarshaWaddelow
  7/24/2014 19:24 EST

We have a company mining for stone across our canyon. They occasionally blast which gives us
a big boom and shake. Quick and Over. When I felt the first one years ago I was disappointed,'
Not at all what I expected.

Sounded like when I was a kid and planes broke the sound barrier. A big boom.... things would shake and a dish or two would fall and break. No big deal. After all its Costa Rica.

MarshaWaddelow
  7/24/2014 19:24 EST

We have a company mining for stone across our canyon. They occasionally blast which gives us
a big boom and shake. Quick and Over. When I felt the first one years ago I was disappointed,'
Not at all what I expected.

Sounded like when I was a kid and planes broke the sound barrier. A big boom.... things would shake and a dish or two would fall and break. No big deal. After all its Costa Rica.

MarshaWaddelow
  7/24/2014 19:24 EST

We have a company mining for stone across our canyon. They occasionally blast which gives us
a big boom and shake. Quick and Over. When I felt the first one years ago I was disappointed,'
Not at all what I expected.

Sounded like when I was a kid and planes broke the sound barrier. A big boom.... things would shake and a dish or two would fall and break. No big deal. After all its Costa Rica.

PuraVida
  7/25/2014 09:40 EST

Where do you live????? I was in Puriscal yesterday at 12:50 and felt the mild quake, but nothing major.
According to the Laboratorio de Ingeniería Sísmica de la Universidad de Costa Rica (INI-UCR), the quake’s epicentre was 1.6 kilometres from La Guacima, Alajuela, at a depth of 12 kms.

The Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica, Universidad Nacional (OVSICORI) automatic detection reports the quake a 4.7 on the Richter scale.

No aftershocks were recorded.
ALAJUELA...not Puriscal.
Social media reports say the quake was felt strongest in Alajuela, Heredia and La Uruca.

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Kohl
  7/25/2014 09:51 EST

Maybe you feel it more when your home 'hangs from the side of a mountain...' as you have previously mentioned.
Hope you never experience, a big one!!

tac615
  7/25/2014 10:52 EST

Did you feel the aftershock around 10:30 - 11:00 last night? I was reading in bed and my bed started to slightly vibrate. Made me think of the old time hotels with the quarter machine to vibrate the bed :-)

VikingExpat
  7/25/2014 12:32 EST

First of all it wasn't really an earthquake (terremoto) but the lighter "temblor" as they call it in spanish. Second the epicenter was close to La Guácima, not Pursiscal as others have already pointed out. I live in Las Vueltas de La Guácima, also five km from the epicenter, and a few things on shelfs and tables fell down but no structural or even cosmetical damages.

Check here:
http://www.ovsicori.una.ac.cr/

Also, the reason to why you won't find it on the USGS site is most likely because Costa Rica doesn't report to them (any reason they should?). I was living in Chile during the devastating earthquake in 2010 and THAT was worth naming an earthquake so keep the reporting real, please. Also, Chile does report to USGS so even the smallest movements there shows up on their site. Cheers.

shermanwc
  7/25/2014 22:14 EST

USGS is now reporting this earthquake as a 4.0 magnitude EQ slightly north of other reports. (In English, it "is" an "earthquake".)

According to their website: "We may not rapidly locate earthquakes smaller than 5.0 outside the US unless they have caused significant damage or are widely felt. ... If our magnitude for the event is less than magnitude 5.0, we may not issue a rapid report for it. Earthquakes occurring outside the US and smaller than about magnitude 4.5 can be difficult for the USGS to locate if there are not enough data."

VikingExpat
  7/26/2014 02:18 EST

Well, in English there are other words to describe seismic activity, such as tremor or temblor. A small temblor doesn't make it an EARTHQUAKE! with capital letters and exclamation mark just because one gringo being hysterical. Also, living in Costa Rica talking to locals about EARTHQUAKES! when they are not will just, again, make you look like ignorant gringos. If you have been living in an area with weekly temblors and more seldom earthquakes you know the difference. No need to respond to this because I'll leave expatexchange in a few minutes in favor for other better expat forums. So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.

ILuvCR
  7/26/2014 18:24 EST

FYI,

EARTHQUAKE! was the headline of the article that I cut and pasted into this forum not the rantings of a "hysterical" or "ignorant" gringo"

ILuvCR
  7/26/2014 18:27 EST

Viking,adios, Buena suerta & good riddance! We need much more positive, less angry and way less judgmental participants on this forum. Pura Vida!

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