Stefanny A
A second home that I often have the opportunity to visit is Mexico, Michoacán, also known as the “hot lands.” I frequently only tend to visit during the summers and the beginning of the fall, and the heavy thunderstorms and lightning that consistently strike every day throughout the night are never a bother to me.
I found it relaxing. However, the consequences of such heavy rainfalls the next day were not so “relaxing.” But that is not all. The people from el pueblo also endure the extreme heat throughout the year. To top it all off, we are also cautious of earthquakes.
Approximately two years ago, in September 2022, an earthquake with a 7.6 magnitude, with an aftershock of 6.7, struck the coast of Michoacán-Colima (1). This earthquake was a result of a “subduction thrust” between plates (1). A subduction thrust earthquake occurs when the boundaries of a plate break through another plate via friction (4). One of the plates “thrusts”/slides under the other (4). This movement causes both plates to “lock” in place with each other, and over time, the tension between the two increases until a threshold is reached, and they rupture, causing a “megathrust” earthquake (4). This type of earthquake typically occurs within subduction zones (4). In this event, the Cocos-North American plate broke. This destroyed many infrastructures, leaving many people injured, without their businesses, and many others homeless. The aftershock, which is like a mini earthquake or a shaking episode (3), preceded this and caused even more panic, as Singh et al. (2023) state. In fact, ABC7News, which covered such news, reported one fatality, and a Los Angeles tourist who was visiting had described feeling terrified by that experience. She had stated, “Then at the end you kind of whiplash when it’s about to end, and that is the scariest feeling of all because it is like oh my God, is it happening all over again.”
This was personally shocking and saddening to hear, especially since I was in my motherland just a couple of days before. When my mom heard the news, she quickly called my grandparents and my aunts. Fortunately, my family and their homes were okay. Although the houses are old, their infrastructure was made with good foundational support. My aunt, who had recalled feeling slightly terrified, described to my mom how she had quickly stepped under the table and covered the back of her head with her hands. At that moment, she remembered seeing flying shards as glass cups were falling. “It was unbelievable, I was praying that the whole cupboard wasn’t going to tumble and fall on me.”
The neighbors down the street were not as lucky, and like many others from el pueblo, their homes were destroyed.
Although I was not physically present, I do wonder from time to time what it would have been like to be in that situation. Ultimately, this was an eye-opening experience that taught me not to take things for granted and the importance of being properly educated.
Works Cited:
Scholarly article: https://www.scielo.org.mx/pdf/geoint/v62n2/0016-7169-geoint-62-02-445.pdf
Image source:(https://geerassociation.org/?view=geerreports&id=105&layout=default)
Definition of aftershock: https://www.britannica.com/story/what-is-an-aftershock
Definition of megathrust: https://www.earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/zones/cascadia/qa-en.php
ABC News coverage media video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teHp4687NhA
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