Wilber Sequeira searches for recoverable items in his earthquake damaged home in Nosara, Costa Rica, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012. A powerful, magnitude-7.6 earthquake shook Costa Rica and a wide swath of Central America on Wednesday.CANGREJAL, Costa Rica – The bulletins were terrifying: a powerful earthquake had struck off the coast of this Central American country, spawning a tsunami warning and bringing fears of widespread catastrophe.
But Costa Rica suffered remarkably little damage from Wednesday’s magnitude-7.6 quake – a few blocked highways, some collapsed houses and one death, of a heart attack caused by fright. Officials credited the relatively deep location of the quake and building codes that Costa Rican officials call as strict as those in California and Japan.
The quake was 25 miles (41 kilometers) below the surface. Tremors that occur deep underground tend to be less damaging, but their shaking can be felt over a wider area.
“If it was a shallower event, it would be a significantly higher hazard,” said seismologist Daniel McNamara of the U.S. Geological Survey.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 38 miles (60 kilometers) from the town of Liberia and 87 miles (140 kilometers) west of the capital, San Jose.