The tsunami warning centre recorded initial waves a metre over wave level off the city of Salina Cruz. It predicted waves of 30cm and a metre for the Cook Islands, Ecuador, El Salvador, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guatemala and Kiribati.
Guatemala’s president, Jimmy Morales, said he had reports of an death close to the border with Mexico, in San Marcos state. “We have reports of some damage and the death of one person, even though we still don’t have details,” he said.
Lucy Jones, a seismologist in California who works with the US Geological Survey, said a quake was to be expected. “Off the west coast of Mexico is what’s called the subduction zone: the Pacific plate is moving under the Mexican peninsula,” she said.
The Mexican seismological authority said the quake was and triggered a series of size 6 aftershocks.
“Chiapas is historically a very seismic state due to the interaction of five tectonic plates,” it stated at a report on the earthquake. The state has suffered three tremors above size 7 since 1970, including one on 7 November 2012 that measured 7.3.