(Trinidad Express) Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley says the region ought to be alert for aftershocks in the aftermath of a 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck and triggered a tsunami warning across parts of the Caribbean on Saturday evening.
Though the warning was lifted on Sunday, the Prime Minister said the region was lucky to have experienced the major earthquake without suffering destruction or damage but asked that citizens remain alert.
In a post to his social media yesterday, Rowley, who holds a doctorate in geology, detailed the risk of seismic activity in the region.
“The Cayman Trench structural fracture zone remains an active plate margin of the small but well-defined Caribbean plate so the potential for significant seismic activity in the region remains a natural hazard that comes with the territory,” he said.
He added, “We now have to be alert to possible significant aftershocks which are normal, especially after events of such large magnitude. We are lucky to have experienced such a big shake at shallow depth without it causing any damage or destruction.”
According to the US Geological Survey, the earthquake struck approximately 130 miles south of Georgetown, Cayman Islands, shortly before 6.30 p.m. on Saturday.
A Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) situation report, which the Prime Minister attached to his post, noted that initial data indicated hazardous tsunami waves were possible for coasts located within 1000 kilometres of the earthquake’s epicentre.
The Bahamas, Belize, Cayman Islands, Haiti, Jamaica, the Turks and Caicos Islands.
However, following further evaluation and analysis of all available data, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre later advised that there was no longer a hazardous tsunami threat from this event.
The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) in T&T later released a statement acknowledging the earthquake, but noting that there was no direct threat to the country.
According to the University of the West Indies (UWI) Seismic Research Centre’s website, there have been 10 confirmed earthquake-generated tsunamis occurring within the Caribbean Basin over the past 500 years.
Tsunamis have inflicted a small amount of losses compared to other hazards such as earthquakes and volcanic activity within the Caribbean over the last 500 years, it added. However it said, the impact of a large tsunami can be as devastating as an earthquake or an erupting volcano. Potentially destructive tsunamis, it said, occur at an average rate of one to two per century in the Caribbean.
