Becky and I are in Boquete, Panama. About 15 minutes ago (15:01 UTC) our house started shaking. We thought it was an earthquake but weren't sure. A few moments ago it showed up on the USGS site. A 5.5 magnitude earthquake (initially reported as a 5.8, 5.2, then 5.3) hit 40-60 KM from where we are.
The earthquake was centered just west of David, Panama near the Costa Rica/Panama border
Details are here: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2008smav.html
Thanks to Google maps we have an exact location of where it is. We're going to investigate with cameras. Back with an update soon.
Update: We're back from the area where the quake was centered. There is no sign of damage and the people there seem to be treating this like any other regular day.
Apparently there were 2 or 3 more 4.4-4.9 quakes while we were on the road. We didn't notice them.
Update #2: As more data has become available the earthquake was upgraded to 5.5 magnitude today (May 27).
Comments
Rob Lantz - May 26, 2008 2:34 pm
Wow! Is that the <i>rational</i> thing to do... rush to the epicenter of a significant earthquake? Be safe.
Cyn - May 26, 2008 4:13 pm
Yes, be safe.
Dan James - May 26, 2008 4:42 pm
Rational, no. Exciting, yes. Well the idea of going to the center of a quake was exciting in reality it was very boring.
Rob Lantz - May 26, 2008 4:52 pm
What? Boring? You mean there's no gaping, smoking chasm in the earth?
Dan James - May 26, 2008 5:02 pm
No. There was a guy selling bananas though.
Alan - May 26, 2008 5:48 pm
Did you know that the Cucamonga Quakes single A baseball team in California play in a stadium called the Epicenter?