Earthquake in Costa Rica

Earthquakes are a common occurrence here. The average is about 300 a year, but most are very small. Yesterday around 4:00 PM, we experienced one that was a little larger than normal. It shook the house a bit and there were waves in our pool. However, everything is cool - nobody hurt and no damage whatsoever to our house or belongings. The quake occurred near Quepos, which is about 40 miles from us on the Pacific Coast.

Below, is an article from the Tico Times website:

A 6.1 magnitude tremor rattled Costa Rica's central valley and the southern zone of the country on Thursday, The Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (Ovsicori) reported.

The tremor occurred at 4:16 p.m., with its epicenter located 30 kilometers southwest of the Quepos, a port town on the Central Pacific. It struck at 10 kilometers below the surface along the Coco plate, according to Ovsicori.

As of 5 p.m., Thursday, the National Emergency Commission (CNE) had received reports of fallen objects in houses, but no injuries. In Ciudad Neilly, a small wall in the town center collapsed.

Press officials with the CNE said they didn't see a reason to issue a tsunami warning.

The United States Geological Survey reported the tremor as having a magnitude of 6.2 with a depth of 38.8 kilometers, and centered 67 kilometers south-southwest of San José.

In the Central Valley, Twitter posters reported feeling �very strong� shakes in Orotina, La Guácima, Pavas and Alajuela, west of San José, and in San Pedro and Cartago, east of the capital.

In downtown San José, employees evacuated office buildings. The shakes lasted for roughly 15 seconds in downtown San José.

Now, one very interesting things I learned this morning is that there are a lot of earthquakes every day around the world. California is not the place to be if you are bothered by quakes. Check out this site:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php

Anyway, for those of you that are wondering about us - Everything is fine down here - Take care