The Acting Director of the Seismic Research Centre of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Dr Joan Latchman, is warning Caribbean countries to be prepared for an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.0, according to the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

CMC said that the warning came after Trinidad and Tobago was shaken by a 5.1 magnitude quake on Sunday night.

Latchman said, according to CMC,  that while the region has not had a major earthquake for the last 100 years, she is predicting that one with a magnitude of 8.0 could hit the Caribbean any day.

“Our largest earthquake close to Trinidad occurred in 1756 which is more than 200 years ago. The largest one in the Eastern Caribbean occurred in 1843 which is more than a 100 years ago, the region is poised for a large earthquake,” she said on a radio programme in Trinidad.

Latchman said that Sunday’s earthquake was part of a series of earthquakes that began in September 2006 when one of the tremors registered a magnitude of 5.8, the highest registered on land in Trinidad-since the Seismic Unit has been monitoring earthquakes.