(Trinidad Guardian) A shallow magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck 113 kilometres west of Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago at a depth of 10 kilometres at 10.25 pm Friday.
The earthquake was widely reported across parts of northwestern Trinidad, with a few reports across Central Trinidad.
This is the second felt quake to rock the island within the past 24 hours, following a magnitude 4.2 earthquake at 12:55 pm Friday. The first quake occurred 104 kilometres west of Port-of- Spain at a depth of 10 kilometres.
Earthquakes in this region are common. Generally, across the Eastern Caribbean, a seismically active area, earthquakes of this magnitude, up to M8.0 and greater, according to seismologists at the UWI Seismic Research Centre.
Each year, over 2,200 seismic events are recorded in the Eastern Caribbean. On average, the Eastern Caribbean has seen a pattern of major (M7.0-M7.9) quakes every 20 to 30 years. That pattern has stayed true. The last major (M7.0-7.9) quake occurred north of Martinique in 2007.
