Strange weather and Mother Nature events have been rocking the Caribbean and Central American region over the past 18 months. First it was Hurricane Dorian, the largest hurricane to hit the Caribbean Basin on record ever that destroyed the Bahamian island of Abaco and badly damaging Grand Bahama, in late 2019; then it was Hurricane’s Eta and Iota that laid waste to most of Central America in late 2020; then it is the eruption of the La Soufriere volcano on St Vincent and the Grenadines just one week ago now the region is faced with two earthquakes on the same day, one in Antigua and Barbuda and the other one in the British Virgin Islands.
An earthquake of magnitude 4.3 occurred on January 5 43 km northeast of Codrington, Antigua & Barbuda, the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) reported.
The other Caribbean islands affected were the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Saint Martin, Sint Maarten, Guadeloupe, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, U.S. Virgin Islands, Caribbean Netherlands, Saint Barthélemy and Anguilla
A separate earthquake, plotted some 49 km from British Virgin Islands, registered 3.9 on the scale yesterday as well.
The Antigua quake hit at a shallow depth of 22 km beneath the epicentre near Codrington, Barbuda, early morning on Tuesday 5 January 2021 at 3:39 am local time. The exact magnitude, epicentre, and depth of the quake might be revised within the next few hours or minutes as seismologists review data and refine their calculations, or as other agencies issue their report.
The VolcanoDiscovery report said that their monitoring service identified a second report from the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) which listed the quake at magnitude 4.3 as well. Based on the preliminary seismic data, the quake should not have caused any significant damage, but was probably felt by many people as light vibration in the area of the epicentre.
Weak shaking might have been felt in Codrington (pop. 1,300) located 43 km from the epicentre, and Codrington (pop. 1,300) 43 km away.
Other towns or cities near the epicentre where the quake might have been felt as very weak shaking include Piggotts (pop. 1,900) located 82 km from the epicentre, Parham (pop. 970) 82 km away, Potters Village (pop. 1,400) 83 km away, St John’s (pop. 24,200) 83 km away, All Saints (pop. 2,500) 86 km away, Liberta (pop. 1,700) 89 km away, Falmouth (pop. 620) 90 km away, and Bolands (pop. 1,700) 90 km away.
VolcanoDiscovery will automatically update magnitude and depth if these change and follow up if other significant news about the quake become available. If you’re in the area, please send us your experience through our reporting mechanism, either online or via our mobile app. This will help us provide more first-hand updates to anyone around the globe who wants to know more about this quake.