String of 25 quakes rattles San José, Central Valley

Halloween revelers in Desamparados, just south of San José, got quite a scare in the early hours Saturday morning when a magnitude-4.2 earthquake shook the suburb.

The Volcanological and Seismological Observatory (OVSICORI) at the National University said on its Facebook page that the strongest temblor, at 4.2, rattled Desamparados at 1:23 a.m. OVSICORI reported 25 aftershocks between 1:23 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. Saturday across the Central Valley, from Desamparados in the southeastern corner of the Greater San José Area to Guacima, Alajuela, in the west. Twenty of the quakes took place in Desamparados. The temblors there were shallower and stronger than the five others reported in Guacima Saturday morning.

The University of Costa Rica’s National Seismological Network tweeted that the quakes in the Central Valley were not related to the recent activity at Turrialba Volcano, which triggered a Yellow Alert and the evacuation of at least 11 people after eruptions started on Wednesday, Oct. 29.