Earthquake Cluster Ruins Homes, Rattles Nerves In Western Nicaragua

(Subscription required to read full articles. Click here for subscription information)

Article from NotiCen, May 8

Nicaragua remains on "red alert" following a cluster of pre-Easter earthquakes that killed two people, damaged nearly 5,000 homes, some completely, opened up a 20 km-long crack in the earth, and may have even caused an odd drop in the water level of Lago Xolotlán, also known as Lake Managua. The first of the quakes, measuring magnitude 6.2 on the Richter scale, struck on the evening of April 10. Hardest hit was the town of Nagarote, some 50 km northwest of Managua, the Nicaraguan capital, where damage was also reported. The quake leveled approximately 300 Nagarote dwellings and left another 600 uninhabitable. Nerve-rattling tremors have continued to shake the area. A magnitude 5.1 jolt struck on the night of April 13. Authorities registered another sizeable shake (4.6) on the morning of April 15. Similar magnitude events occurred on April 18 (4.3), April 19 (4.4), April 21 (4.3), April 23 (4.4), April 26 (4.3), and May 1 (4.7). Benjamin Witte-Lebhar Read More