Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading

'Apocalypse': rare lightning adds to quake awe in Mexico

A rare natural light show flashed across the night sky during a powerful earthquake that shook Mexico City and beach resort Acapulco late on Tuesday, adding to a sense of doom as startled residents rushed into the streets.

Twitter users posted dozens of videos of the phenomenon, prompting a trend under the tag Apocalipsis, which is Spanish for Apocalypse, the biblical term used to denote the end of the world.

The 7.0 magnitude quake, which hit 11 miles (17.7 km) northeast of Acapulco in southwestern Guerrero state killed one man and damaged buildings in the holiday getaway but did not appear to cause widespread destruction, authorities said in initial reports.

There were no reports of significant damage in Mexico City.

In footage from Acapulco, the flashes start shortly after the ground starts shaking, illuminating previously darkened hills behind the ocean bay and at one point appearing to bathe buildings on the shoreline in bright light.

In Mexico City, panicked residents tried to keep their balance outside an apartment building while the sky flashed blue, white and pink, another video on social media showed.

Strange lights reported during earthquakes around the world are often imbued with religious meaning by those who witness them. There is little scientific consensus on what causes the luminosity, or even if it is a real phenomenon.

Theories for what researchers call Earthquake Lights (EQL) include friction between moving rocks creating electrical activity. Similar lights were reported by some people during a destructive quake in Mexico in 2017.

Skeptics say witnesses may be seeing more mundane lightning.

"Geophysicists differ on the extent to which they think that individual reports of unusual lighting near the time and epicenter of an earthquake actually represent EQL," the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) says on its website.

"Some doubt that any of the reports constitute solid evidence," USGS said.

(Reporting by Frank Jack Daniel, Editing by William Maclean)

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.