Eqecat Provides Loss Estimate for Mexico Earthquake

Risk modeling firm Eqecat has released loss estimates for the magnitude 7.2 earthquake on the Mexican border on April 4.

Published on April 7, 2010

Eqecat estimates total economic damage from this event will not exceed $1 billion, and insured losses will not exceed $300m, with most of the economic damage occurring in Mexico.

Eqecat says damage will have occurred in both Mexico and the US, with the community of Mexicali the largest urban area affected by this event. The largest US city affected by the earthquake is El Centro, California, although a lot less damage is expected there than in Mexicali, because of lower-intensity ground shaking and less-vulnerable structures.

The risk modeling firm says the ground shaking experienced in Mexicali was of an intensity typically associated with moderate-to-heavy damage in vulnerable structures such as unreinforced masonry. Structures with greater earthquake resistance may have experienced slight to moderate damage. The intensity of shaking that occurred in El Centro and other US locations is below the threshold typically associated with structural damage.

This earthquake ruptured on the Laguna Salada fault, whose last major earthquake occurred in 1892, to the north-west of Sunday's rupture.