By NAN Contributor
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Mon. Oct. 29, 2018: A Caribbean island has been shaken 7 times in the past seven days by earthquakes as high as 5.1 on the Richter scale, according to the University of the West Indies, (UWI) Seismic Unit.
The increase from 5 in five days to seven in 7 days occurred in the twin-island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago over the weekend. According to the UWI Seismic Unit, the latest occurred on Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018 and measured 4.1 on the Richter scale. It struck 68 km NW of Port of Spain, 75 km NW of San Fernando and 89 km NW of Arima.
On Friday, Oct. 26, 2018, the sixth quake in six days occurred at 9:57 a.m. local time and measured 3.8 on the Richter Scale. It struck 126 km WSW of Port of Spain.
The latest quakes come on the heels of a magnitude 4.8 on the Richter scale that occurred on Thursday, Oct. 25, 2018 at 11:57 a.m. local time 57 km W of Port of Spain, 75 km NW of San Fernando, and 83 km W of Arima.
Two quakes occurred on Monday, Oct. 22nd around 11:33 p.m. local time and 11:37 p.m. local time and measured 5.1 and 4.2, respectively. They occurred 88 km WSW of Port of Spain and 91 km WNW of San Fernando.
On Sunday, October 21st, a 5.1 quake struck at 12:35 p.m. local time 78 km NE of Scarborough, 161 km NE of Arima and 181 km NE of Port of Spain. And on October 20th, as the country battled flooding in several areas, a 4.2 struck 166 km NE of Scarborough around 4:41 p.m. local time.
On Oct. 21st, 252 years ago, T&T experienced its largest magnitude earthquake to date.
“The records indicate that the region should experience an event of this size every 100 years. Our last event in the region was in 1843,” the UWI Seismic Unit said on its Facebook page Friday. “This is why the statement often goes around that ‘we are overdue for a big event.’ Our region has experienced events like this and can do so in the future and steps must be taken to reduce the risk before it occurs.”
