BRIDGETOWN – Several Caribbean islands were rocked by earthquakes during a six hour period overnight, the Trinidad-based Seismic Research centre (SRC) of the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) reported Wednesday.
It said there were no immediate damage or injuries as a result of the quakes, but terrified residents in Dominica and some other islands reported being shaken by the tremors. Some people took to social media to relieve the experiences.
The first quake, with a magnitude of 4.0, occurred at 9 p.m. on Tuesday night and was felt in Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda and the French island of Guadeloupe.
It was located at latitude: 16.74N, longitude: 59.58W and at a depth of 10 kilometres.
The SRC said that it was felt 224 km east north east of Point-a-Pitre, the capital of Guadeloupe, 255 km east of the capital of Antigua and Barbuda and 257 km north east of Roseau, Dominica.
Dominica and Guadeloupe were also rocked by another earthquake, 17 minutes later that also affected Martinique.
According to the SRC, the quake which occurred at 9.17 pm (local time) with a magnitude of 3.7, was located latitude: 15.37N, longitude: 61.32W and at a depth of five km.
It was also felt 11 km north east of Roseau, 89 km north, north west of Fort-de France, Martinique and 100 km south, south east of Point-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe.
The third earthquake recorded by the SRC occurred early Wednesday morning and had a magnitude of 4.0.
The SRC said that the quake which occurred at 3:05 a.m. was felt in Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines and St Lucia.
It was located latitude: 12.78N, longitude: 60.39W and at a depth of 10km.
The SRC said that it was felt 94 km south west of Bridgetown, Barbados, 102 km south east of Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and 153 km south east of Castries, St Lucia.
Earlier this week, the head of the SRC Dr Joan Lutchman, reiterated a call for the region to be prepared for a major earthquake as several parts of the Caribbean were jolted by earth tremors last weekend.
Over the weekend, the SRC said that a burst of 54 earthquakes occurred north of St Kitts during a 21 hour period. The biggest had a magnitude of 4.1.
Lutchman, who has for months now been warning that the Caribbean is long overdue a “big one”, said that several tremors have since been recorded following the weekend activities. (CMC)
