Earthquake magnitude 4.2 in Montes Claros - Brazil

The city of Montes Claros (population: 360,000) in the north of the state of Minas Gerais, in Brazil, experienced a earthquake with magnitude 4.2 this Saturday.

It was one of the strongest quakes in that area, ever. In fact, one of the strongest in Brazil ever, since Brazil is not very seismically active.




News, in English:


Rare Earthquakes hit Central Brazil

BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil – A rare earthquake occurred on Saturday morning in the town of Montes Claros, in Minas Gerais state. The strong temblor frightened residents and caused cracks in at least one building, reported online media.

The Fire Department said that it received hundreds of calls after the quake, which occurred around 10:40 am, Saturday 19 May 2012. Authorities reported no casualties.
According to Professor Lucas Vieira Barros, of the Seismological Observatory of the Institute of Geosciences at the University of Brasília, other tremors occurred in the region Saturday morning but this one was the strongest.

“Unfortunately we did not record the quake, but we can infer intensity of between 6 and 7 on the Modified Mercalli scale and a magnitude of between 4 and 4.5 on the Richter scale,” Barros told terra.com.br.

Closed circuit security cameras at one of the cities most popular shopping malls caught images of the panic that set in after the quake hit. The images show frightened shoppers fleeing in terror as the building shakes. The quack caused cracks some parts of the mall.

source: [link to www.brazildispatch.com]




News, in Portuguese: [link to ultimosegundo.ig.com.br]