honduras

honduras
2009 May 28 08:24:45 UTC

Earthquake Details
Magnitude 7.1
Date-Time

* Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 08:24:45 UTC
* Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 03:24:45 AM at epicenter
* Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 16.783°N, 86.166°W
Depth 10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program
Region OFFSHORE HONDURAS
Distances 130 km (80 miles) NNE of La Ceiba, Honduras
225 km (140 miles) N of Juticalpa, Honduras
320 km (200 miles) NNE of TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras
1170 km (730 miles) SSW of Miami, Florida
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 6.3 km (3.9 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters NST=119, Nph=119, Dmin=323.9 km, Rmss=0.88 sec, Gp=104°,
M-type=(unknown type), Version=6
Source

* USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)

Event ID us2009heak

May 28 (Bloomberg) -- A magnitude-7.3 earthquake struck under the Caribbean Sea, prompting tsunami warnings for Honduras, Belize and Guatemala, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

The quake struck at 3:24 a.m. 130 kilometers (80 miles) north-northeast of Le Ceiba, Honduras, the U.S. Geological Survey said, putting the magnitude at 7.1 with a depth of 10 kilometers. The epicenter was 320 kilometers north-northeast of Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital.

“There is a possibility of a local tsunami that could affect coasts located usually no more than 100 kilometers from the earthquake epicenter,” the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said on its Web site. “A widespread destructive tsunami threat does not exist.”

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aRq...
The Spanish used at least three different terms to refer to the area that became the Central American country of Honduras.

* Guaymuras - a name Columbus provided for a town near modern Trujillo. Bartolomé de las Casas subsequently generalized it to apply to the whole colony.
* Higueras - a reference to the gourds that come from the Jicaro tree, many of which were found floating in the waters off the northwest coast of Honduras.
* Honduras - literally "depths" in Spanish. Columbus is traditionally quoted as having written Gracias a Dios que hemos salido de esas Honduras (English: "Thank God we have come out of those depths") while along the northeastern coast.
Archaeologists have demonstrated that Honduras had a rich, multi-ethnic prehistory. An important part of that prehistory was the Mayan presence around the city of Copán in western Honduras, near the Guatemalan border. A major Mayan city flourished during the classic period (150-900) in that area. It has many carved inscriptions and stelae. The ancient kingdom, named rtyu, existed from the fifth century to the early ninth century, with antecedents going back to at least the second century. The Mayan civilization began a marked decline in the ninth century, but there is evidence of people still living in and around the city until at least 1200[4]. By the time the Spanish came to Honduras, the once great city-state of Copán was overrun by the jungle, and the Lencas, not the Mayans, were the main Amerindian people living in western Honduras [5].

On his fourth and the final voyage to the New World in 1502, Christopher Columbus reached the Bay Islands on the coast of Honduras.[6] Columbus landed near the modern town of Trujillo, in the vicinity of the Guaimoreto Lagoon. After the Spanish discovery, Honduras became part of Spain's vast empire in the New World within the Kingdom of Guatemala. Trujillo and Gracias were the first city-capitals. The Spanish ruled the region for approximately three centuries.

Spain granted independence to Honduras along with the rest of the Central American provinces on September 15 1821. In 1822 the United Central American Provinces decided to join the newly declared Mexican Empire of Iturbide. The Iturbide Empire was overthrown in 1823 and Central America separated from it, forming the Federal Republic of Central America, which disintegrated in 1838. As a result the states of the republic became independent nations.

Silver mining was a key factor in the Spanish conquest and settlement of Honduras[7]. The American-owned Barger Mining Company was a major gold and silver producer but shut down its large mine at San Juancito in 1954.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Honduras joined the Allied Nations on December 8, 1941. Along with twenty-five other governments, Honduras signed the Declaration by United Nations on January 1, 1942.

In 1969, Honduras and El Salvador fought what would become known as the Football War.[8] There had been border tensions between the two countries after Oswaldo López Arellano, a former president of Honduras, blamed the deteriorating economy on the large number of immigrants from El Salvador. From that point on, the relationship between the two countries grew acrimonious and reached a low when El Salvador met Honduras for a three-round football elimination match as a preliminary to the World Cup. Tensions escalated, and on July 14, 1969, the Salvadoran army launched an attack against Honduras. The Organization of American States negotiated a cease-fire which took effect on July 20 and brought about a withdrawal of Salvadoran troops in early August.[8]

Contributing factors in the conflict were a boundary dispute and the presence of thousands of Salvadorans living in Honduras illegally. After the week-long football war, many Salvadoran families and workers were expelled. El Salvador had agreed on a truce to settle the boundary issue, but Honduras later paid war damage costs for expelled refugees.[8]
Fort of San Fernando Omoa, built by the Spaniards to defend against pirates

Hurricane Fifi caused severe damage while skimming the northern coast of Honduras on September 18 and 19, 1974.

Melgar Castro (1975-78) and Paz Garcia (1978-82) largely built the current physical infrastructure and telecommunications system of Honduras.[9]

During the early 1980s, the United States established a continuing military presence in Honduras with the purpose of supporting the anti-Sandinista Contras fighting the Nicaraguan government[10]. The U.S. built Soto Cano Air Base also known as Palmerola, near Comayagua, with a 10,000-foot (3,000 m) runway so that C-5 Galaxy cargo planes could land there, rather than at the public airport in San Pedro Sula [11]. They revitalized an airstrip last used in World War II near Trujillo along the beach by the Guaimoretto lagoon as well. The U.S. also built a training base near Trujillo known as CREMS, which primarily trained Contras and the El Salvadoran military, and in conjunction with this, developed Puerto Castilla into a modern port [12] Though spared the bloody civil wars wracking its neighbors, the Honduran army quietly waged a campaign against Marxist-Leninist militias such as Cinchoneros Popular Liberation Movement, notorious for kidnappings and bombings[13], and allegedly some non-militants. The operation is alleged to have included extra judicial killings done by government-backed units, most notably Battalion 316.[14]

President Roberto Suazo Cordoba launched ambitious social and economic development projects sponsored by American development aid. Honduras became host to the largest Peace Corps mission in the world, and nongovernmental and international voluntary agencies proliferated.[9]

In 1998, Hurricane Mitch caused such massive and widespread loss that former Honduran President Carlos Roberto Flores claimed that fifty years of progress in the country were reversed. Mitch obliterated about 70% of the crops and an estimated 70-80% of the transportation infrastructure, including nearly all bridges and secondary roads. Across the country, 33,000 houses were destroyed, an additional 50,000 damaged, some 5,000 people killed, 12,000 injured, and total loss estimated at $3 billion USD.