Earthquake of magnitude 8 hits off south Mexico

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Looks like it might be quite bad.
 

PedroMendez

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Considering the magnitude of the quake, the consequences don't seem to be too bad. 5 people dead so far. The following tsunami seem to be pretty small as well.
 

VP89

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8 is obviously a bad magnitude, hopefully minimal deaths from this.

Could they not have expected this coming I wonder? I'm not sure how easy it is to anticipate earthquakes but I thought they could.
 

senorgregster

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8 is obviously a bad magnitude, hopefully minimal deaths from this.

Could they not have expected this coming I wonder? I'm not sure how easy it is to anticipate earthquakes but I thought they could.
The early alert systems get you in the order of seconds, I believe.

Edit. Here is the official text. These seconds can make all the difference in certain situations.

People living at a higher distance from the epicenter and the detection point may be alerted before they are reached by the damaging waves of the earthquake. ... As of May 2015, USGS began testing anearthquake early warning app. QuakeAlert was developed by Early Warning Labs in partnership USGS.
 
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Carolina Red

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8 is obviously a bad magnitude, hopefully minimal deaths from this.

Could they not have expected this coming I wonder? I'm not sure how easy it is to anticipate earthquakes but I thought they could.
Can earthquakes be predicted?

No – at least not so that we could issue an advanced warning for a specific time at a specific location that would allow for an orderly evacuation. Most quakes do, however, occur in predictable locations along well known fault zones, as was the case with last week’s megathrust off the coast of Japan.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20243-why-earthquakes-are-hard-to-predict/
 

Organic Potatoes

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8 is obviously a bad magnitude, hopefully minimal deaths from this.

Could they not have expected this coming I wonder? I'm not sure how easy it is to anticipate earthquakes but I thought they could.
I think you're mistaking the possibility of predicting volcanic eruptions via minor earthquakes. There is no predicting earthquakes except in terms of probability due to faultlines.
 

utdalltheway

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Biggest in Mexico in over 100 years?
Can't imagine an 8+ earthquake. And now they have Katia hitting their gulf coast.