Mexican authorities are trying to quash rumors that a powerfully destructive earthquake supposedly has been predicted to strike the country, according to the Associated Press.
The rumors began spreading on social media after the Saturday night quake in Ecuador that killed at least 433 people. The rumors said there had been predictions that a quake of up to magnitude 8.6 was imminent in Mexico.
Mexican officials are denying rumors that an earthquake in Mexico is imminent. Photo shows damage in Ecuador from earthquake this week. (PHOTO: cnn.com)
At least one message in circulation cited the country’s National Seismological Service and the National Autonomous University of Mexico as the purported sources of the alert. But the Seismological Service posted a scrolling, ticker-like notice on its website Tuesday April 19 assuring Mexicans that the agency “is NOT issuing any seismic alert.”
It linked to information explaining that quakes cannot be predicted.
In 1985, a magnitude-8.0 quake near the Mexican coast caused hundreds of buildings in the capital to collapse and killed at least 9,500 people.
Source: ap.org via U.S. News & World Report
