Three quakes in 3 days for Virgin Islands

By Ryan Haas
Reporter- SKNVibes.com

VIRGIN ISLANDS -THE Puerto Rico Seismic Network (PRSN) has indicated that a one major and two weaker earthquakes spent the weekend shaking up residents of the British and US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.

The first quake came at roughly 6:40 a.m. on Saturday, October 11, and registered a whopping 6.1 on the Richter scale. According to the PRSN, the epicenter was located near 19.3 north latitude and 64.8 west longitude, or 100 miles NE of San Juan at a depth of 16 kilometers.

Shortly after the first earthquake hit, SKNVibes spoke to one ‘shaken’ Virgin Islander living in St. Thomas who said she awoke to the sounds of kitchenware shattering.

“I was very scared, to wake up like that and have no idea what was going on. There were a lot of loud noises and my whole bed was shaking. I thought the roof was going to come down on me. I don’t know how long it lasted by it shook for a very long time,” she recounted.

As far as SKNVibes could ascertain, no injuries or serious infrastructural damage was reported in the British or US protectorates.

The second quake for the sub-region came almost exactly 36 hours later and registered a much less severe 2.2 on the Richter scale. Located at a similar latitude and longitude as the first quake, the second epicenter is believed to have been at a slightly deeper 20 kilometers.  

Respite did not come to the Puerto Ricans and Virgin Islanders, however, as yet another tremor struck yesterday morning (Oct. 13) at 1:30 a.m. While the PRSN is still gathering data on this latest earthquake, it is believed to have been a 3.3 on the Richter scale and was located near 19.08 north latitude and 64.71 west longitude at a depth of 74 kilometers.

An astounding 131 measurable earthquakes have been logged by the PRSN already for the month of October, though a majority of these were well under the range which humans can detect.