Five (5) earthquakes above the magnitude 3.5 occurred near St. Kitts & Nevis over a 12-hour period, during the weekend.

According to information from the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre (UWI, SRC), the first was recorded at 5:11pm on Friday Nov. 15^th, with a magnitude of 5.0 (the strongest out of the five), occurring 126 km ENE of Basseterre, St. Kitts. Then at 6:32pm, a 4.0 quake occurred 121 km ENE of Basseterre.

In less than an hour, at 7:11 that same evening, one with a magnitude of 3.7 was recorded 136 km NE of Basseterre.

Almost 5 hours later at 12:26 am on Saturday Nov. 16^th, a quake with a magnitude of 3.8, took place 128 km ENE of Basseterre. Finally, at 5:48 that morning, a 4.4 quake occurred 132 ENE of Basseterre. These quakes also occurred near St. John’s Antigua and Barbuda and Brades, Montserrat.

But why so many quakes? UWI-SRC said “much of the world’s earthquake and volcanic activity takes place along plate boundaries, the area where plates meet. Countries located along plate boundaries, such as the Eastern Caribbean islands, are likely to experience earthquakes.” It added “at these plate boundaries the plates interact with each other in different ways; some of them slide past each other.”