“I was watching TV at my friends house when suddenly there was a heavy tremor,” said Paola Vega, 16, describing the earthquake yesterday afternoon that was registered 3.1 on the Richter scale by the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (OVSICORI), based at National University. The National Seismological Network, based at the University of Costa Rica, measured it at 3.9.
Many residents in and around San José province felt the quake, which hit the capital at 2:05 p.m. Vega was in Alajuela, northwest of San José, at the time. She said it lasted about a minute. “My friend was scared, but I wasn't,” she said.
According to National University's seismology experts, the earthquake started 14 kilometers below the ground, in the canton of Dota, southeast of San José.
No one was hurt, the daily La Nación reported.
Some residents hardly felt a thing. Katherin Morales, 19, noticed the quake “more or less,” she said, while tending to customers at the Super Tico shop, in court district of eastern San José. She was chatting with friends when the store shook a bit. “Nothing major, just a little shake,” she said.
Eduardo Gutiérrez, 28, was sitting at his stall nearby in the Artisan Market at the Plaza de la Democracia, making earrings, when he felt “a weird vibration.”
“The street always shakes a little, because of traffic. But this was different,” Gutiérrez said, gesturing with his hand up and down.
But others missed the wave completely, such as Antonia Gaede, 21, who seemed shocked by the news. “I was meeting friends at the Teatro Nacional. We didn't feel anything.” |
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