Earthquake shakes Mexico's Gulf of California

CULIACAN, Mexico (Reuters) - A strong earthquake hit Mexico's Gulf of California on Saturday, but there were no reports of damage and no danger of a tsunami.

The epicenter of the 6.3-magnitude earthquake was 61 miles from the town of Los Mochis in the tomato-growing state of Sinaloa, at a depth of 35 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

Civil protection authorities in Los Mochis said they had not received any reports of damage or injuries.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said there was no danger of dangerous waves from the earthquake.

"Fortunately, most of the earthquakes in the Gulf of California are the kind that don't lift the ocean bottom and so they don't generate waves," Tsunami Center geophysicist Gerard Fryer said.

The Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortez, separates the sparsely populated Baja California peninsula from mainland Mexico.

Last April, a strong magnitude 6 earthquake shook Mexico, sending thousands of tourists in the resort of Acapulco fleeing into the streets in panic and knocking out electricity 250 miles away in Mexico City.

(Additional reporting by Noel Randewich)