Magnitude 7.2 Earthquake- Baja California, Mexico

The magnitude 7.2 northern Baja California earthquake of Sunday, April 4, 2010, occurred approximately 40 miles south of the Mexico-USA border at shallow depth along the principal plate boundary between the North American and Pacific plates. This is an area with a high level of historical seismicity and has recently been seismically active, though this is the largest event to strike in this area since 1892. This earthquake appears to be larger than the M 6.9 earthquake in 1940 or any of the early 20th century events (e.g., 1915 and 1934) in this region of northern Baja California.

The principal plate boundary in northern Baja California consists of a series of northwest-trending strike-slip faults that are separated by pull-apart basins. The faults are distinct from but parallel to strands of the San Andreas fault system. The April 4 main-shock occurred along a strike-slip segment of the plate boundary that coincides with the southeastern part of the Laguna Salada fault. Aftershocks appear to extend in both directions along this fault5 system from the epicenter of yesterday's event. The aftershock zone extends from the northern tip of the Gulf of California to the Mexico-USA border. There have been more than 1000 aftershocks as of Tuesday, April 6,2010.

For more earthquake information, please go to www.usgs.gov or scsn.org.

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