Earthquake of magnitude 6.2 hit the Caribbean

Caribbean: An Earthquake of magnitude 6.2 struck the Southern part of Caribbean which hit areas nearby including the east and northeast of Venezuela coast in the Caribbean Sea.

The incident was reported by UWI Seismic Research Center. According to the reports from the UWI SRC the earthquake was said to occur at 11:58 pm (local time) on 23^rd June 2024. The earthquake is reported to have a magnitude of 6.2 at a depth of 46 km.

According to some reports, people had also experienced a loud sound just before the earthquake. The reason behind this is Seismic Waves. When an earthquake occurs, Seismic waves are generated. The P- waves generated are the fastest and the frequency of these waves lies between the audio range which humans can easily hear. It’s sound is almost similar to that like a rumble or distant thunder. The frequency is loud enough to vibrate the air which makes you hear it.

According to the sources the earthquake hit areas including parts of Venezuela, Port of Spain, San Fernando, Northeastern Guyana, Grenada, and St Vincent and Grenadines. But what could be the possible reason for Caribbean being one of the favourite places for earthquakes? The answer is simple Plate tectonics.

The Caribbean region is often considered to be one of the most susceptible to earthquakes and often experience the hazard. Plate tectonics is one of the major reasons behind Earthquakes and Tsunamis hitting these areas the most. The north American Tectonic plate and the Caribbean tectonic plate on which the islands are located influence these earthquakes. Both the plates are coming closer at a comparably high rate causing plenty of earthquakes and associated disasters in these areas over the years.

The region experiences high seismicity and large earthquakes for example, back in 2021, an earthquake of magnitude 7.2 hit the area which was deadly. This earthquake happened to cause the most damage to Haiti, a country in Caribbean causing almost 2,248 deaths and 12,763 injuries. Not just that, before that, Jamaica, Cuba and the Cayman Islands experienced an earthquake of magnitude 7.7 in the year 2020 which also led to Tsunami.

Several people also took it to social media to report about the disaster and in their comments, they wrote;

“An earthquake was felt in Maturín-Monagas-Venezuela at midnight, from the 2nd floor of the building the bed shook for a few seconds,” one person wrote on X.

Another shared, “WOW. An Earthquake just hit Trinidad Pray all is well cause we felt it all the way in Guyana.”

“There was a 6.0 magnitude earthquake here in Venezuela and my head is spinning and my heart is racing from waking up that sudden. I guess I’m not sleeping tonight,” another person reported.