A powerful 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck the Caribbean Sea on Saturday, causing tsunami alerts to be raised for a dozen islands, with other Caribbean nations on high alert due to the potential threat. The US Tsunami Warning System had initially issued warnings to more than a dozen of countries - including waves of up to three metres (10ft). But, it later said the threat had passed. Advisories were also issued by the Tsunami Warning System for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands following the earthquake - which were both also later cancelled.
The National Weather Service warned, "Earthquakes of this size are known to generate tsunamis dangerous to shorelines near the source," A watch list has been compiled, including: Colombia, Haiti, Belize, Saba, Aruba, Curacao, Costa Rica, the Bahamas, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, Panama, the Dominican Republic, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Honduras, Mexico, Bonaire, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Jamaica—all felt tremors 209 km southwest of George Town in the Cayman Islands.
However, atmospheric scientist Matthew Cappucci took to social media to alleviate fears of a tsunami, noting the quake's shallow depth of just 7 miles and its lateral movement. He said: "It was shallow, with a depth of barely 7 miles," he added that it was a "strike-slip" quake with limited vertical motion, thus posing a very low tsunami risk. READ MORE: Mum and son, 8, die of food poisoning within day of arriving at luxury Dominican Republic resort.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) said: "Large earthquakes at this location of the plate boundary are not unexpected." Experts have noted: "Luckily, the remote location of these earthquakes limits the potential for significant damage due to shaking.". In the past century, at least ten major quakes with a magnitude of six or more have occurred within 250 km of the recent tremor's epicentre. There's history here too – a 7.5 magnitude quake in 2018, caused by a similar event, spawned a small tsunami that certainly made waves, reports the Mirror US.
