Small Caribbean island of Barbuda rattled by two earthquakes within a week

Barbuda was rattled by a 4.5 magnitude earthquake late on Friday night, the second earth tremor to hit the small Caribbean island within a one week period.

The Trinidad-based Seismic Research Centre of the University of the West Indies (UWI) said the latest tremor occurred at 9.56 pm local time and occurred northwest of the island.

CREDIT: UWISEISMIC.COM

“The event was located at 17.75° north and 62.18° west. The magnitude was 4.5 and depth 19km,” the Centre said in a brief statement, noting that there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The tremor followed a 4.2 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday that occurred south west of Barbuda. That tremor was located at 17.49 degrees north and 61.98 degrees west and had a depth of 64 km.

“This event was reported felt in St. Johns, Antigua,” the Seismic Unit noted.

In recent months, a number of Caribbean countries have been rocked by earth tremors with officials at the Seismic Unit warning regional countries to be prepared for a major quake. The last major earthquake to hit the Caribbean occurred in Haiti in 2010 when the 7.0 magnitude tremor killed more than 300,000 people and left an estimated one million others homeless.