From Tribune staff reports
MEXICO CITY —According to the U.S. Geological Survey, an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 hit in the Gulf of California on Sunday at 1:14 a.m. local time.
The epicenter of the quake was 37 miles (59 kilometers) south-southwest of Topolobampo, Mexico and struck at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles) in the gulf.
According to a tweet from the National Weather Service, no tsunami is expected from the earthquake.
“The area west of the Gulf of California, including Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula, is moving northwestward with the Pacific plate at about 50 mm per year,” according to the USGS website. “Here, the Pacific and North American plates grind past each other creating strike-slip faulting, the southern extension of California’s San Andreas fault. In the past, this relative plate motion pulled Baja California away from the coast forming the Gulf of California and is the cause of earthquakes in the Gulf of California region today.”
