This past Friday, April 11 at 2:29 p.m., residents of Nicoya and the surrounding area were reminded, for a moment, of the strong earthquake of September 2012.
The Nicoya canton was shook by an earthquake centered in the lakes of Nicaragua. According to reports from readers of The Voice made via Facebook, the quake was felt twice, the first soft and the second stronger.
The quake, which had an epicenter 32 kilometers northeast of Rivas in Nicaragua, was caused by tectonic subduction and had a 6.3 magnitude, according to the Costa Rican Volcanology and Seismology Observatory (OVSICORI – Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica).
For Nicaragua it was not the only seismic event that week. On Thursday, April 10 at 5 p.m., there was a similar quake with a 6.1 magnitude. Regardless, the Friday quake was the only one felt in Guanacaste and the northern parts of Costa Rica because it happened at a greater depth, where seismic waves affect a larger area.
In Nicoya, Nosara and Samara the quake was described as strong and long, while in Santa Cruz and Liberia it was just strong. In areas of high elevation in Santa Cruz it was described as light.
Jakeline Piñar, from the Tulita Sandino development, said, “It was very strong; things fell in my business [a grocery] fell, but it was just a scare.” Maria Elena Martinez, from Nicoya, said, “It was very strong and lasted a while – I thought it was going to get stronger.” Nubia Morales, a resident of Arado de Santa Cruz, commented that, “Here it was very strong; people were horrified remembering the past earthquake.”
The two quakes caused damage to some 1,600 homes in Managua and Leon in Nicaragua.
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