1985 Mexico City Earthquake

An earthquake of moment magnitude 8.0 struck off the coast of Michoacan, Mexico, on 19 September 1985 at 07:17 local time, its energy traveling roughly 350 kilometers to devastate Mexico City, whose soft lakebed soil amplified the shaking far beyond the epicenter's own region. At least 412 buildings collapsed completely and another 3,124 were seriously damaged in the capital, with 3 to 5 billion dollars in property damage. The death toll remains disputed: about 5,000 legally certified deaths were recovered from debris, but citizen groups have claimed as many as 30,000, and the National Seismological Service has estimated 45,000; the government's decision to keep silent on the disaster for 39 hours deepened public distrust of the official count.