A dot on the map, or a tsunami question
A strong offshore quake here is never just a dot on the map.
Mexico鈥檚 Pacific coast is a subduction zone where the Cocos Plate dives under North America. Shallow offshore quakes matter twice over: they can shake hard and, depending on how the fault moves, raise a tsunami. One stretch, the Guerrero gap, has stayed ominously quiet.
What is happening at Mexican Pacific Coast
Along the Middle America Trench the Cocos Plate slides beneath Mexico, feeding both the country鈥檚 frequent large quakes and its volcanoes. Mexico City, though far inland, sits on an old lakebed that amplifies distant shaking.
Part of the coast near Guerrero has produced no great earthquake for a long time - a "seismic gap" that scientists watch closely, because a quiet stretch of a busy fault may simply be storing strain.
The hazard record here
THE RECORD HERE
A magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck here in 1985.
Epicentre: 1985 Michoacan, Mexico Earthquake.
Live figures from the QuakeMate hazard API - USGS earthquake catalog, NOAA tsunami database and published recurrence estimates. Some fields are blank where there is no record.
Recent earthquakes at Mexican Pacific Coast
- 3.8GUERRERO, MEXICO2 weeks ago 路 16/07/2026, 09:48:54 路 24 km deep
- 3.1GUERRERO, MEXICO3 weeks ago 路 07/07/2026, 10:23:48 路 5 km deep
- 3.5OFFSHORE GUERRERO, MEXICO2 weeks ago 路 12/07/2026, 09:50:04 路 6 km deep
- 3.0GUERRERO, MEXICO2 weeks ago 路 14/07/2026, 09:25:37 路 22 km deep
- 4.1GUERRERO, MEXICO3 weeks ago 路 10/07/2026, 11:31:52 路 18 km deep
- 3.4GUERRERO, MEXICO2 weeks ago 路 13/07/2026, 06:40:16 路 5 km deep
59 more earthquakes at Mexican Pacific Coast
Open the QuakeMate app to see every quake here, sorted and mapped - plus real-time alerts when a new one strikes.
Notable events
1985
The M8.0 Michoacan quake devastated Mexico City from far offshore.
2017
Two major quakes weeks apart struck Chiapas and Puebla.
What scientists watch
Mexico operates one of the world鈥檚 oldest public earthquake early-warning systems, giving Mexico City seconds of notice before coastal quakes arrive.
Staying ahead of it
Coastal Mexico pairs strong shaking with tsunami potential and long-range amplification inland - broad, fast alerts help everyone in the path.
Get QuakeMate freeGet warned before the next one at Mexican Pacific Coast.
QuakeMate sends a push the instant the ground moves - plus tsunami and volcano alerts. Free to download.
Mexican Pacific Coast: common questions
What is the Guerrero seismic gap?
A stretch of the Mexican subduction zone that has not produced a great earthquake in a long time. Because the rest of the boundary is active, that quiet section is watched as a place where strain may be accumulating.
Why does Mexico City shake so much from distant quakes?
It sits on the soft sediments of an ancient lakebed, which amplify and prolong seismic waves - so a quake far away on the coast can still shake the city hard.
Related hazard zones
Earthquake data via the QuakeMate API (USGS, EMSC and regional agencies). Historical notes summarise well-established events; magnitudes and dates follow the published record. Live figures may be revised.