Magnitude 7.4 earthquake - MARTINIQUE REGION, WINDWARD ISLANDS

[bigworld]

Source: USGS

Magnitude 7.4
Date-Time

* Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 19:00:19 UTC
* Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 03:00:19 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 14.951°N, 61.241°W
Depth 143.1 km (88.9 miles)
Region MARTINIQUE REGION, WINDWARD ISLANDS
Distances

* 23 km (14 miles) NNW (332°) from Le Morne-Rouge, Saint-Pierre, Martinique
* 23 km (14 miles) NW (306°) from Le Lorrain, La Trinité, Martinique
* 24 km (15 miles) NNW (344°) from Saint-Pierre, Saint-Pierre, Martinique
* 42 km (26 miles) SSE (159°) from ROSEAU, Dominica
* 270 km (168 miles) NW (320°) from BRIDGETOWN, Barbados


Read more: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/...

[snappyturtle]

1. WOW! nt

[EFerrari]

2. I got shakemail here in CA but it was "cancelled". n/t

[bigworld]

3. update from BBC... buildings reported collapsed in capital

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7120018.stm

A strong earthquake measuring 7.4 magnitude has hit near the island of Martinique in the eastern Caribbean, the US Geological Survey has said.

The earthquake struck at 1500 (1900 GMT) off the north-west coast of Martinique at a depth of 145.4 kilometers (90.4 miles)

No casualties have been reported and no major tsunami warning has been given.

There have been unconfirmed reports that some buildings have collapsed in Martinique's capital, Fort-de-France.

"For the moment, a building and a bank have collapsed. There is panic, but we do not know if there are casualties," a police source in Fort-de-France told the French news agency AFP.

There were also reports that the French island of Guadeloupe had felt the quake strongly.

Residents on islands across the eastern Caribbean reported to the US Geological Survey that they had felt the quake.

The tremor was felt hundreds of miles away in South America. In the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, some residents evacuated office buildings, Reuters news agency reported.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. Yikes.

I think there's a high chance of liquefaction on a lot of these islands.

[screembloodymurder]

11. Why?

They're volcanic.

[kestrel91316]

12. One word: SAND.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

13. Are they 100% volcanic?

Or are a lot of them coral out along the edges?

Look at what happened to Port Royal.

[aquart]

9. Martinique has a faultline?

How often does that happen there?

[Ediacara]

10. Every time you have active volcanoes in a line, you've got the chance for earthquakes

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

14. To answer the question, yes there's a fault line.

It's where the Caribbean Plate meets the North American Plate.

I think there would be substantially less change of earthquakes if the volcanoes in a line were due to hotspots, e.g. Hawaii.

[LSparkle]

4. Wow -- not an area we hear about having earthquakes

Hopefully the only damage will be to property (no loss of life).

[Ediacara]

7. Big earthquakes aren't super common, but they happen

The whole of the Lesser Antiles are volcanic islands that are formed by subduction of the the North American Plate to the east (the open Atlantic Ocean) under the Caribbean Plate to the west. This similar to the processes that form the Marianas Islands, Japan, Indonesia, and the Cascades. Like the Cascades (but unlike Japan, Indonesia, and the Marianas), big earthquakes are less common in the eastern Caribbean, but can still be really big.

[Ediacara]

5. Tsunami NOT expected

http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/2007/11/29/299322/01/message...

To: U.S. and Canadian Atlantic, and Gulf of Mexico coastal regions
From: NOAA/NWS/West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center (Experimental Web Product)
Subject: Tsunami Information Statement #1 issued 11/29/2007 at 3:08PM AST

A strong earthquake has occurred, but a tsunami IS NOT expected along the coasts of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico states, and Eastern Canadian provinces. NO tsunami warning or watch is in effect for these areas.

Based on the depth of the earthquake within the earth, a widespread damaging tsunami IS NOT expected along the Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, U.S. Atlantic, Eastern Canadian and Gulf of Mexico coasts. At coastal locations which have experienced strong ground shaking, local tsunamis are possible due to underwater landslides.

At 3:00 PM Atlantic Standard Time on November 29, an earthquake with preliminary magnitude 7.3 occurred near the Windward Islands, Caribbean Sea. (Refer to the United States Geological Survey for official earthquake parameters.)

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Ewa Beach, Hawaii will issue messages for areas in the Caribbean outside Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

This will be the only statement issued for this event by the West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center unless conditions warrant. See the WCATWC web site for basic tsunami information, safety rules, and a tsunami travel time map and table. (NOTE: Travel time maps and tables indicate forecasted times only, not that a wave was generated.)

Link to Standard Information Statement
Link to Public Information Statement
Link to XML/CAP Message
Link to Printable Message

[Ediacara]

8. Shake Map

So far, those on the two islands closest the epicenter (Martinique and Dominica) appear to give this quake pretty moderate intensity (except in Fort-de-France), but this could be due to internet and power outages.

[goforit]

22. Thanx for the map. Unsual for these islands to be hit?

[Submariner]

15. I'm in a San Juan, PR hotel and everything was shaking

I thought I was having a health problem (my shaking) while reading the Crooks & Liars site until I looked around and saw the room lamps moving also. Weird feeling.

[goforit]

23. Wow, Felt it in San Juan? Ya should hang out in the open for a while instead

of staying in any building.

[whistlingfrogsl]

16. report from st. lucia

we're in the north of St. Lucia, this was by far the strongest and longest quake we've had (been here 37 years) things fell of shelves and broke but nothing more than that here - had a couple short tremors yesterday morning, so I hope this is the worst part. Cell phone networks were not working for hours afterwords - reports of a few heart attacks, broken leg from jumping off a building here and a bit of panic in Swan St. Bridgetown, Barbados where tremors are even more rare. In general I'd say we've had many more tremors in recent 5 years.
Just heard the roof of our main telecommunications providers main office collapsed in the quake -news on tv in about an hour - may report again in anything interesting shows.

whistlingfrog,

[Ediacara]

17. Thanks for that report and welcome to DU

I hope the damage stays pretty minimal.

And for those DUers that don't know, St Lucia is the island directly south or Martinique that also has some people reporting strong shaking on the shake map linked above.

[Adsos Letter]

18. Thanks for the onsight report, whistlingfrog...

...stay safe...and welcome to DU

[Zorra]

19. Welcome to DU!

[whistlingfrogsl]

20. good report here

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1129caribbean-qu...

has a good report from several islands

thanks all for the welcome

[whistlingfrogsl]

21. from the tv news

Castries (our capital) is largely on reclaimed land - the roads in the seaward side shake even when a big truck passes - so the quake did cause quite a lot of panic. The worst affected building seems to be the fire station which is on the dock, it received a lot of cracks and the internal stairwell partially crumbled. This building has needed to be replaced for quite some time so maybe this will force the issue. Seems one home in an area called Bexon collapsed -this area is very prone to high rainfall and since it's been raining alot this season chances are the ground is also saturated there. Still no reports of deaths - one reported in Guadeloupe but hasn't been confirmed.

[MikeNearMcChord]

24. Martinique is the home of the volcano Mt. Pelee

that wiped out the capital St. Pierre in 1902.

[bigworld]

25. Aftershocks continuing...

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/...

a 4.7 and a 5.5 in the same general area tonight. Nice and deep (@93 miles), probably no tsunami threat.

On edit - and another 5.1. Good night to sleep under the palms if you ask me.