By: Staff Writer
September 5, 2023
Director of the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre (UWISRC) Dr Euroscilla Joseph said that there is an average of 3,000 earthquakes in the Caribbean annually and this is normal, with most quakes measuring over 3.0 on the richter scale.
Dr Joseph, responding to Caribbean Magazine Plus queries on the recent spate of quakes off the coast of Dominica, Guadeloupe and Martinique and noting that in previous years the quakes all averaged under 3.0 to now regularly topping 3.5 in recent months that the strengths of the quakes “will vary,” on any given occasion and it’s “not that these quakes are unusual events.”
She also said: “In general, to give some quick stats: In any given year, there’s about 3,000 events recorded, roughly in the Caribbean. Like how everything has characteristics and on a baseline so we can see how things change from year to year. In general, our region, the Eastern Caribbean, there is roughly 3,000 events, give or take on a yearly basis.”
Two earthquakes rattled several Caribbean islands on Monday, according to a report from the UWISRC.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries linked to the tremors. The centre said the most recent quake, with a magnitude of 4.2 occurred 9.45 a.m. on Monday at a depth of 10 kilometres. It was felt 111 km north east of Roseau, the Dominican capital, 131 km south east of Point-à-Pitre in the French island of Guadeloupe and 142 km north east of Fort-de-France, Martinique.
The second tremor with a magnitude of 4.5 occurred on Sunday evening at 9.22 p.m. at a depth of 62 km. The quake was felt 105 km north west of Port of Spain in Trinidad, 109 km, south west of St George’s in Grenada and 121 km north east of Carúpano, Venezuela.
A map of the most recent earthquakes in the Caribbean on the UWISRC website shows the magnitude and location of this year’s earthquakes. “Most of this, of course, is related to the subduction process. However, there are also volcanic events, but the volcanic events are relatively small,” Dr Joseph said.
Subduction occurs when an oceanic plate runs into a continental plate and slides beneath it.
She added: “Unless it’s associated with something like like the La Soufreire eruption, where the events become greater than a magnitude 3.8 that nobody would really feel the the shocks.
“So roughly 300 or so are recorded above 3.8 magnitude and we have about 20 or so that usually range between 5.0 and 5.9 and about 150 in the range of 4.0 and 4.9.
“So we have some general characteristics that are observed for our region and so we are within those kinds of constraints. So while you would have seen some larger events they are not unusual and in fact they are rather normal characteristics for our subduction zone setting.”