7.4 Earthquake in Mexico

An earthquake measuring 7.4 struck today in southern Mexico, about 110 miles from Acapulco, the U.S. Geological Survey reports.

Update at 6:10 p.m. ET: The governor of Guerrero state is now saying that least 800 homes collapsed in Igualapa, CNN reports. Igualapa is a city of about 10,000 people in the coastal region south of Chilpancingo.

Update at 5:07 p.m. ET: The USGS says the quake was caused by "thrust-faulting on or near the plate boundary interface between the Cocos and North America plates" along the Pacific coast.

Historically, there have been several significant earthquakes along the southern coast of Mexico. In 1932, a magnitude 8.4 thrust earthquake struck in the region of Jalisco, several hundred kilometers to the northwest of today's event. On October 9, 1995 a magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck in the Colima-Jalisco region, killing at least 49 people and leaving 1,000 homeless. The deadliest nearby earthquake occurred in the Michoacan region 470 km to the northwest of today's event, on September 19, 1985. This magnitude 8.0 earthquake killed at least 9,500 people, injured about 30,000, and left 100,000 people homeless. More recently, a 2003 magnitude 7.6 Colima, Mexico earthquake 640 km to the northwest of today's event killed 29 people, destroyed more than 2,000 homes and left more than 10,000 homeless

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/03/a-76-quake-reported-to-hit-near-acapulco/1?csp=34news#.T2ki4xF1JPI

http://abcnews.go.com/International/magnitude-76-earthquake-shakes-mexico/story?id=15963259#.T2knxBF1JPI