This morning, as I was hopping through the rainforest, the ground began to tremble! It was so loud and scary, that the other animals in the jungle and I didn't know what was going on! Apparently, it was an earthquake, and I overheard the local townsfolk saying that the epicenter was located around 85 miles west of San Jose just off the coast of Samara. So, I did what any tree frog would do - I ran! When I eventually got to the nearest town, the earthquake was all over the news, so I went to find out what was going on.
One of the local news outlets, Telenoticias 7, said that in the hour after the quake began, there were as many as 25 aftershocks! Apparently, the tremor was caused by tectonic plates crashing into one another more than 20 miles underground. Some officials warned that further aftershocks may continue long after the initial quake subsided.
La Nacion reports that the earthquake was the second-strongest ever recorded in Costa Rica! The last time a quake of this magnitude hit the country was in 1822, when a temblor measuring 7.6 on the Richter Scale was reported in San Estanislao, in the province of Cartago. Both of these big quakes really shook the country up, but we were luck enough to get out of both without any serious damage!
The Associated Press reports that the initial magnitude was 7.9, but this was quickly downgraded. Although the quake only lasted for about 30 seconds, it felt much longer, and was felt as far away as neighboring Nicaragua and Panama. Some schools in Nicaragua were evacuated following the tremor - better to be on the safe side!
"So far, we don't have victims," said Kenia Campos, a city official in nearby Hojancha, one of the towns closest to the epicenter of the quake, as quoted by the news source. "People were really scared. We have had moderate quakes but an earthquake [this strong] hadn't happened in more than 50 years."
A lot of people were really scared, as we don't get many earthquakes in Costa Rica, but some experts said that this has been a long time coming. During the past 10 years, geological experts have warned that the area where the quake was centered - the Nicoya Peninsula - was at particular risk of another quake, as this is where Costa Rica's last earthquake struck almost 50 years ago.
Fortunately, there hasn't been much damage, and experts lifted the tsunami warning with a few hours. It was really scary, but we were lucky to get off easy - especially with how big this quake was!
Costa Rica recovering from earthquake
The Limon earthquake of 1991
Enjoy the natural and man-made sounds of Costa Rica
