A 5.7 magnitude earthquake struck in Mexico’s Gulf of California early on Friday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said.
The earthquake had a depth of 6.2 miles, and its epicenter was 46.6 miles northeast of Santa Rosalía, Mexico.
The USGS said there is a green alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses, meaning there is “a low likelihood of casualties and damage.”
Mexico is “one of the world’s most seismically active regions,” the USGS says, because it sits atop three large tectonic plates.
“The area west of the Gulf of California, including Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula, is moving northwestward with the Pacific plate at about 50 mm per year,” the USGS says.
“Here, the Pacific and North American plates grind past each other creating strike-slip faulting, the southern extension of California’s San Andreas fault.
“In the past, this relative plate motion pulled Baja California away from the coast forming the Gulf of California and is the cause of earthquakes in the Gulf of California region today.”
Recent Earthquakes
The Indonesian coast was struck by four earthquakes on November 4 and 5, the USGS said. The quakes ranged in strength from a magnitude of 4.7 up to 5.9, which is considered a strong earthquake capable of causing significant damage.
The 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck late Tuesday, approximately 40 miles, or 65 km, from Gorontalo at a depth of nearly 70 miles, or about 110 km, according to the USGS map.
Another quake struck just two hours earlier at a strength of 5.0 magnitude in the Papua Province of Indonesia, about 110 miles (178 km) west-northwest of Abepura.
On Wednesday, two more earthquakes struck the coastline, both at a 4.7 magnitude.
No injuries or damage were reported, and no tsunami warnings were issued.
From Sunday into Monday, nearly two dozen earthquakes struck off the coast of Russia, near the Kamchatka Peninsula, per the USGS.
The temblors were measured from 4.3 to 6.1 magnitude. No injuries, deaths or destruction were reported, and no tsunami warning was issued.
The region has seen frequent seismic activity over the last few months, with a potent 8.8 magnitude earthquake striking on July 29 and prompting tsunami warnings up and down the U.S. West Coast.
On Sunday, a strong earthquake struck northern Afghanistan at a magnitude of 6.3. The quake hit about 13 miles west-southwest of Khulm, which is about 230 miles northwest of the capital city of Kabul.
At least 20 people were killed as homes were reduced to rubble.
