MASSIVE 7.7 QUAKE ROCKS JAMAICA.

The strongest ever quake to impact the Caribbean comes following a 5.3 earthquake with it’s epicenter in the Gulf of Paria, occuring at approximately 12:24am on Tuesday 28th January 2020, which rocked Trinidad’s southwestern peninsula. Now, another reported earthquake within the Caribbean region, this time a major one, occuring 77 miles north northwest off Jamaica and with a whopping 7.7 magnitude measured on the Richter Scale, triggering minor tsunami waves measuring 0.4ft, affecting the Cayman Islands, with warnings for coastal areas spanning from Jamaica to Mexico, Honduras and Belize. No warnings were issued for the islands of Trinidad & Tobago.

The tremor which occured at approximately 2:10pm Jamaica time, was felt throughout the Western Caribbean, South America and parts of Florida in the USA. Some structural damages were reported in Jamaica and Cayman Islands, however no fatalities were acknowledged.

The earthquake at a depth of 10km appears to have been a “strike-slip earthquake,” in which tectonic plates slide against each other. This limits the threat of a devastating tsunami, which are more associated with “thrust earthquakes,” where a portion of the earth is thrust upward and causes the water to push up and outward, creating the tsunami. (Source CNN)

This earthquake is the strongest ever recorded in the Caribbean and the strongest recorded in 64 years in the region.