A powerful, jarring sound from cell phones interrupted Sunday afternoon for millions of residents across central Mexico, including Jalisco.
The first instinct for many was to suspect a fault in their device. The piercing sound, however, was an automated nationwide seismic alert — accompanied by a visual warning on home screens — activated by an earthquake hundreds of kilometers to the south.
The Mexican Seismological Service confirmed a 5.7 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter 19 kilometers northeast of Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, occurring at 3:42 p.m. on February 8. Despite the tremor being approximately 850 kilometers from Guadalajara and not felt in Jalisco or most of central Mexico, the automated alert system activated on smartphones through official apps.
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