Cayman Islands Earthquake: Is This a Trend?

By Amanda Pendolino on January 19th, 2010

A 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck the Cayman Islands this morning, rattling homes and buildings. According to The Washington Post, there were no reports of injury or damage. Minor temblors are common in the region, but Cayman residents are more aware of the devastation that can happen from earthquakes, given the 7.0 earthquake that reduced the Haitain capital of Port-au-Prince to rubble just a week ago.

“The whole building was rocking,” said Junior Elliott, 30, who was delivering water bottles to a four-story office building near the harbor in George Town, the capital on Grand Cayman Island. Under Cayman building codes, homes and commercial structures must be built to withstand hurricanes as well as earthquakes.

Yesterday, a strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit Guatemala and parts of El Salvador – but according to the San Francisco Chronicle, no damage was reported. On Sunday, a 6.3-magnitude quake hit the South Atlantic, near Argentina. On Friday, Venezuela felt a quake that measured 5.6 No damage occured at these sites, either.

It seems as though we’re experiencing an “earthquake season,” but according to the US Geological Survey, earthquakes are as likely to happen at any time of the day, month or year. And while earthquakes do sometimes occur in clusters, there’s no great meaning – in fact, we may just be more aware of it because the news media spend more time reporting quakes when we’ve already got them on the brain.