Mexico earthquake triggers ‘desert tsunami’ 1,500 miles away in Death Valley cave
Residents were ordered to leave the area to prevent a tsunami. The area was later flooded by rain.
The earthquake that triggered a tsunami and caused a landslide in California’s Death Valley National Park was also detected hundreds of miles away in Mexico, prompting a tsunami warning issued by Mexico’s National Seismological Survey said.
The magnitude-9.4 quake was triggered by a huge magnitude-10.2 quake 515 miles away in Mexico that sent a huge cloud of dust into the atmosphere.
The Mexican seismic agency said the tsunami warning was sent out at 8:37 p.m. (0337 ET), but it was not initially widely publicised and did not affect millions of people across the western U.S., including some 500 million in Mexico.
The USGS said more than 10,000 people who normally live in the area took cover at a park in Death Valley National Park, which sits along the California-Nevada border. Authorities said the park was temporarily closed.
The quake was also detected in other parts of Mexico on Tuesday night, and Mexico’s tsunami warning centre said that while it did not issue a warning for an active earthquake in New Mexico, a large earthquake had been detected in Mexico City.
“The magnitude 6.9 earthquake has been issued and we are working with our National Seismological Center, to find out if it is related to the events in California that have just occurred,” said Miguel Angel Carreras from the Seismological Institute, who said that the earthquake was felt far away from where the tremor was detected, but that it was being monitored by the center.
In an online video produced by KNSD-TV, a reporter from a truck-mounted camera on the highway said he heard a loud noise and the ground began to shake, then a massive cloud of brownish dust rose 5 feet and fell
