By: Staff Writer
January 17, 2023
Director of the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre (UWISRC) Dr Euroscilla Joseph said that the Caribbean has had several earthquakes measuring over 3.5 over the past six days but it is nothing to worry about.
Dr Joseph, responding to queries by Caribbean Magazine Plus about the recent uptick in earthquakes in the most recent weeks around the South Eastern Caribbean and told us there was a 3.9 quake off of the coast of Martinique on Monday.
There were several earthquakes over the past seven days, with one near St Lucia, Barbados and St Vincent and the Grenadines that measures 3.6 and another 3.8 just this past Friday off of Antigua, Guadeloupe and St Kitts.
These earthquakes are not a foreshadowing of something more significant brewing in the region as it signalled the eruption of the La Soufriere volcano in St Vincent in December 27, 2020. Prior to that eruption there were several significant earthquakes UWISRC seismologists said took place as part of an early warning sign. “These are part of the normal tectonic activity that happens throughout the subduction zone setting,” Dr Joseph said.
Dr Joseph also said: “These earthquakes are a normal thing. I guess some like to make it sound like news. So some news agencies picked it up. Look, even on Sunday there was a 3.8 magnitude quake off of the coast of Dominica.”
There is nothing to be concerned about anything on the scale of the La Soufriere volcano bubbling up again Dr Joseph assured us.
The Seismic Research Centre (formerly the Seismic Research Unit) of The University of the West Indies grew out of a Colonial Development and Welfare (CDW) project. They began operations in 1953 with the objective of monitoring volcanic activity in the Lesser Antilles and of providing a trained group of scientists in the West Indies who could react quickly to volcanic emergencies.
The islands of the English-speaking Eastern Caribbean were then part of the British Empire and were administered by the Colonial Office. In the 1930’s there was high level earthquake activity associated with the volcanic centre in the south of Montserrat that required scientific consultation which was led by Dr Gerald Ponsonby Lenox-Conyngham, then Head of the Department of Geodesy and Geophysics at Cambridge University, England.
Through monitoring, research and outreach, The UWI Seismic Research Centre promotes the safety of citizens against the impact of earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis in the English-speaking Eastern Caribbean.