Earthquake Today Mexico: Live Map and Latest Quakes

Key context

What is normal in Mexico

Over the 30 years 1996-2025, USGS recorded 2,543 earthquakes of M4.5 or more in Mexico: about 85 a year, or 7.1 a month. The past 12 months had 147, about 73% more than the 30-year average. Quakes of M6 or more average 3 a year here (89 in 30 years), and 4 of them happened in the past 12 months.

Busy years usually mean one large quake and its aftershocks: the peak year here was 2017 with 252. Counts cover Mexico and its Pacific coastal waters out to the Middle America Trench, plus the Gulf of California. They come from the USGS ComCat catalog, which records small quakes more completely in the US than elsewhere, so compare like with like.

Largest earthquakes recorded in Mexico

Plates and faults

Mexico's strong quakes come from the Cocos and Rivera plates, which dive beneath the North American Plate along the Middle America Trench off the Pacific coast from Jalisco to Chiapas. Some quakes break the plate boundary itself (the 1985 Michoacan quake, M8.0); others break inside the sinking slab under the mainland, like the Chiapas (M8.2) and Puebla (M7.1) quakes of September 2017.

In the north-west, the Gulf of California is the southern end of the San Andreas plate boundary, with frequent strike-slip quakes in the water. Mexico City is far from the coast, but it sits on old lake-bed clay that amplifies shaking, which is why distant quakes can do heavy damage there.

• Middle America Trench (Jalisco, Colima, Michoacan, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas coasts)
• Guerrero Gap (a part of the trench without a large quake for a long time)
• Intraslab quakes under Puebla, Morelos and Oaxaca
• Gulf of California transform faults
• Cerro Prieto and Laguna Salada faults (Baja California, 2010 M7.2)

Where the recent quakes were

Of the 23 quakes of the past 30 days, 20 were shallow (less than 70 km deep), 3 intermediate (70-300 km) and 0 deep (more than 300 km). 17 reached M4 or more. The places USGS named most often were Puerto Madero, Mexico (5), Brisas Barra de Suchiate, Mexico (2), Tierra y Libertad, Mexico (1).

Official sources and warnings

• Servicio Sismologico Nacional (SSN, UNAM): Mexico's official quake catalog; it often lists smaller quakes than USGS and reports them first.
• SASMEX seismic alert system (CIRES): the early warning that sounds sirens in Mexico City, Oaxaca and other cities before shaking from coastal quakes arrives.
• CENAPRED (National Center for Disaster Prevention): civil protection guidance.

What to do in an earthquake

If you feel shaking: Drop, Cover and Hold On until it stops. Stay away from windows and heavy furniture, and do not run outside during the shaking. On a coast, strong or long shaking is a natural tsunami warning: move to high ground or inland at once, on foot if you can. Then follow your local officials; this page is not a warning service.

In Mexico, when the SASMEX alarm sounds, follow your building's drill and Protección Civil instructions. On the Pacific coast, move to high ground after strong or long shaking.