Trinidad and Tobago rocked by magnitude 6.2 earthquake

A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 rocked Trinidad and Tobago near midnight on Saturday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The Seismic Research Centre (SRC) of the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) said that the quake was felt at 11:58 pm on Saturday.

It was located at Latitude: 10.83N, Longitude: 62.37W and at a depth of 46 kilometres (km).

The quake was felt 97 km west-northwest of the capital Port of Spain and 119 km northwest of San Fernando.

The SRC said that it was also felt 97 km east northeast in Carúpano, Venezuela.

The Trinidad and Tobago Weather Center reported that the earthquake was felt as far north as St Vincent to as far south as northeastern Guyana.

It said while there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage, power outages were reported across northwestern Trinidad.

“The largest quake to strike within 20 kilometres of tonight’s quake occurred on October 11th, 2013, at magnitude 6.0,” the Center added.

Some people took to social media to report how they felt with one person saying  “6.2 earthquake, worst I have felt in ages,” while the group Tobago Observers posted on Facebook “6.2 according to UWI Seismic Research Centre subject to adjustment. Wow!”.

Another person wrote “Just felt a pretty long earthquake in Trinidad…6.1 on the Richter…all is well,” while one person said “I was watching T20 World Cup…Afghanistan had just won their game vs Australia and I was clapping…next thing I feel the ground shaking…followed by stuff moving on a coffee table..”

The quake came four days after the country recorded a tremor of 3.9.

SOURCE: CMC