A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 8.0 struck off the southern coast of Mexico early Friday prompting potential tsunami threats along the entire southern coast of Central America.
The quake struck about 70 miles off the coast of Chiapas, Mexico, near the border with Guatemala at 12:49 a.m. ET.
“This is a large quake. I’m sure that it will be widely felt — and possibly damaging,” said Randy Baldwin, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
The sizable quake prompted the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center to issue warnings lasting for three hours along the borders of nearly all Central American countries, including Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. It said tsunami waves could reach almost 10 feet along the Mexican coast.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said in a tweet that he had initiated emergency protocols, including convening the National Emergency Committee.
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