The 1911 Michoacán earthquake occurred on June 7 at 04:26 local time (11:02 UTC). The

epicenter The epicenter, epicentre () or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates. Surface damage Before the instrumental pe ...

was located near the coast of

Michoacán Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo (; Purépecha: ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.6 on the

moment magnitude scale The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pape ...

. 45 people were reported dead. In

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

, 119 houses were destroyed. Cracks were reported in Palacio Nacional, Escuela Normal para Maestros, Escuela Preparatoria, Inspección de Policía, and Instituto Geológico.

Ciudad Guzmán Ciudad Guzmán (also known as simply Guzmán) is a city in the Mexico, Mexican States of Mexico, state of Jalisco. It is south of Guadalajara, at a height of above sea level. Its population totaled 97,750 in the 2010 census, ranking as the eig ...

, the seat of

Zapotlán el Grande Zapotlán el Grande (also known as Guzmán and Ciudad Guzmán) is a municipality in the Mexican state of Jalisco. Name There are several meanings given to the root name of the "Zapotlán el Grande". "Zapote" is the name given to all the round fru ...

Jalisco Jalisco (, , ; Nahuatl: Xalixco), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco ; Nahuatl: Tlahtohcayotl Xalixco), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal En ...

, suffered great damage. The earthquake occurred hours before the revolutionary

Francisco I. Madero Francisco Ignacio Madero González (; 30 October 1873 – 22 February 1913) was a Mexican businessman, revolutionary, writer and Public figure, statesman, who became the 37th president of Mexico from 1911 until he was deposed in Ten Tragic Da ...

entered Mexico City on the same day, and it was also known as "temblor maderista". On June 7, 2011, a ceremony was held in Ciudad Guzmán commemorating the centenary of this earthquake. This earthquake was a

megathrust earthquake Megathrust earthquakes occur at convergent plate boundaries, where one tectonic plate is forced underneath another. The earthquakes are caused by slip along the thrust fault that forms the contact between the two plates. These interplate earthqua ...

along the

Middle America Trench The Middle America Trench is a major subduction zone, an oceanic trench in the eastern Pacific Ocean off the southwestern coast of Middle America, stretching from central Mexico to Costa Rica. The trench is 1,700 miles (2,750 km) long an ...

, a major

subduction Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, the ...

zone.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:1911 Michoacan earthquake Earthquakes in Mexico Michoacan 1911 in Mexico 1911 disasters in Mexico

See also

References

External links