A First?? Earthquake rattles the island of Trinidad

Woah!!! What the hell is going on? An earthquake in Trinidad!!!! we don't normally associate earthquakes with the islands, I am sure there are faults there, but usually earthquakes in the region are based in the ocean and are not that common.

Strong Earthquake Shakes Trinidad, Damaging Several Homes Outside Capital

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) - A strong earthquake shook Trinidad on Thursday, damaging several buildings south of the capital, officials and residents said. No injuries or damage to the country's important oil and gas industry were reported.
The temblor had a preliminary magnitude of 5.4, according to the U.S. National Earthquake Information Service in Golden, Colo. The epicenter was near the town of Mayaro, some 12.5 miles south of the capital, Port-of-Spain.

It was the first recorded earthquake of this magnitude to hit land in Trinidad, said Stacey Edwards, a spokeswoman for the Seismic Research Unit at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad.
Magnitude 5 earthquakes can cause considerable damage. The tremors could be felt as far away as Crown Point, Tobago, on the island's southwest corner, Edwards said.

A 5.5-magnitude earthquake was recorded in Trinidad in May 1994 but its epicenter was offshore. No injuries or damage were reported in that quake.

Thursday's quake came more than a week after a Nov. 21 temblor of magnitude 6.3 rocked the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Dominica, killing a child and damaging numerous homes

[edit on 12-2-2004 by worldwatcher]

[edit on 12-2-2004 by worldwatcher]

I am a real newbie on the topic of earthquakes, but I'm eager to learn.
The map I found looks like Trinidad is on on of the lines in the map. Are those fault lines?

wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov...

If they are, that large yellow do above south america is the Trinidad quake and looks to be on a fault line?

Originally posted by DontTreadOnMe
I am a real newbie on the topic of earthquakes

I'm newbie too, but I have an idea that sth is not right - last couple of months there were two middle earthquakes in Poland region:
one in September I believe like 4.sth, and two days ago in Poland- Slovakia border region -4.6. This is not normal for this area!!!!

Poland-Slovakia border region earthquake

I am well acquainted with all of the islands, having actually lived on Trinidad and one other and vacationed on most of the rest. It is just off the coast of Venezuela. Mayaro is a beach area, it was a very popular moderately rough beach, although I understand it is quite rough now. This may be the first with an epicentre under the island, but it is not the first nasty tremor the island ever had. As a child I was thrown off my chair as as one rumbled through.

A chart in the Canadian World Almanac of 1992 reported that there were 133 earthquakes measuring more than 6.5 on the Richter scale between July 1990 and October 1992.

This works out to an average of 600 per ten years. This is in contrast to 48 such earthquakes between 1900 and 1969, averaging SIX per ten years.

I'm not even aware of what the current numbers are, however, this all indicates one thing... our world is slowly approaching the end of its life.

Just as people grow old, our earth is also growing old and the aging process is accelerated by our countless environmental problems.




"... yup... *spits*.... let's keep drillin' that oil Cooter!"

Originally posted by worldwatcher
Woah!!! What the hell is going on? An earthquake in Trinidad!!!!

They have them in dominca, which is in the region.

Thursday's quake came more than a week after a Nov. 21 temblor of magnitude 6.3 rocked the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Dominica, killing a child and damaging numerous homes

Ah, you are aware of it. I know someone that was there when it went on. It wasn't terribly terribly damaging to dominica, but the nearby island was almost completely destroyed.

fattyp:

I really wouldn't take a 2 year period as a measurement point for anything of a geologic nature. Repeat after me: The sky is not falling.

In fact if you look at some of Val's postings you will notice everything seems to be running right in line with what one would expect. Also note there are proven ebs and flows in earthquake activity.

The interesting thing is, one day it's likely the techtonic activity will cease once the earth's core cools. Ofrouce when that happens the magnetic field will cease as well, and all sorts of other things are supposed to happen (sorry too lazy to find all the links right now, but a little digging you'll find it all).

As for the earth quake in Trinidad: There is a fault that runs right through the area. The fact that there has been no recorded quakes in that area doesn't mean much of anything, given the recorded history for Caribbean islands is all of about 400 years (I should know I group up in Barbados).

Osiris