An earthquake, on Sunday morning, shook Dominica with many residents taking to social media to say they were jolted by it.
The UWI Seismic Reasearch Center (SRC), which monitors earthquakes around the region, said it took place at 7:31 am.
It measured 4.9 on the Richter Scale at a depth of of 10 kilometers.
The epicenter was located 95 kilometers east of Roseau, 98 kilometers north east of Fort-de-France, Martinique, and 149 north-north east of Castries, Saint Lucia.
Online reports suggest the tremor was felt in all three of the islands.
The Eastern Caribbean has been shaken by several earthquake in recent times.
In explaining the phenomenon, the SRC said the region experiences thousands of earthquakes a year because “the Lesser Antilles arc is a subduction zone setting.”
“While most of these events are not felt, moderate to significant-sized events may impact the region at anytime,” the organization said in early December following a series of back-to-back quakes which left people across the region concerned. “Many of the events occurring overnight have been located in the northeastern section of the arc, in the area known to have generated our largest earthquake, on 08 February, 1843.”
The SCRC said it has always maintained that the region can experience large earthquakes.
“From the historical records, we should have a large magnitude earthquake every 100 years or so. The last event of that magnitude was in 1843,” it said.
Every 100 years or so an event is expected …and the last such major event was 1843…what was the magnitude of that event? How is large defined using the Richter scale?. It has been 181 years since a major event! 1943 is 100 years after 1843…so we are 81 years in the “or so” risk period…approaching 200 years…Based on this the statistical probability of a major event soon is extremely high.
BTW…what was this 1843 event.. Any details? Wasn’t the 1907 Port Royal event at 6.2 considered a major event?
I’m happy that it was only a tremor and no one was injured nor any report of property damaged.
Hoping and praying that our region would escape any catastrophic disaster from these natural phenomena.