MEXICO CITY (AP) — A powerful earthquake Monday shook the fishing villages along Mexico's Gulf of California, prompting alarm as far away as Phoenix, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
The U.S. National Earthquake Information Center said the 6.9-magnitude quake struck at 12:59 p.m. (1:59 EDT, 17:59 GMT) and was centered 331 miles (533 kilometers)southeast of the border city of Tijuana.
Civil protection officials in the two states on either side of the quake — Baja California and Sonora — said there were no reports of damage or injury.
The magnitude-6.9 quake came minutes after two others calculated at magnitudes 5.8 and 5.0, according to the earthquake center.
The quakes were all centered in the middle of the narrow slice of sea between the Baja peninsula and Mexico's mainland, which should help cut down on its chances of causing major damage, said Don Blakeman, an analyst at the center.
"It's going to be felt extremely widely and it's possible there may be some damage but there's no way to speculate at this point," Blakeman said.
