5.0 Magnitude Earthquake Reported in West Texas

The U.S. Geological Survey said a 5.0 magnitude earthquake struck in western Texas on March 26, 2020. (USGS)

The U.S. Geological Survey said a 5.0 magnitude earthquake struck in western Texas on Thursday morning.

The quake was initially registered as a 4.7 on the Richter scale before it was revised to a 5.0 later, according to the agency.

It struck about 25 miles west of Mentone, the agency reported. The quake struck about 3 miles below the surface at around 9:15 a.m. local time.

The quake struck about 25 miles west of Mentone, Texas, on March 26, 2020. (USGS)

Residents in El Paso, the largest city in the region, reported feeling shaking, presumably from the earthquake. Residents in the cross-border city of Juarez, Mexico, also reported that they felt the quake.

“Did we just have a small scale earthquake in El Paso? Who else felt it?” said El Pasoan Gera Alvarez, a former UTEP goalkeeper soccer coach, according to the El Paso Times.

Locals wrote on the Fox14 Facebook page that they felt shaking.

“I felt it on the Westside and I was texting my husband who is in quarantine at a military camp called Westbrook Basecamp about an hour away and he felt it too,” one person wrote.

Another wrote: “I felt my car shaking in the driveway. I literally thought my car was idling rough then thought it was windy but isn’t see [sic] the wind blowing.”

There were no immediate reports of damage or injures.

The USGS says that earthquakes east of the Rocky Mountains are less common than mountains west of the geographic feature. But should a quake hit, they can be felt over a larger area than the West Coast.

ABC13 reported that nine earthquakes have been reported in far West Texas in the past week. A 3.8 magnitude earthquake hit around Mentone at 3:50 a.m. on Thursday.