Just this month there have been three earthquakes in the Caribbean, including a small one in Haiti Monday morning. A University of Miami Geology Professor Lindsey Henry says this really isn't that unusual.
"The fact that several have occurred in January does look like a pattern, but earthquakes are really not possible to predict so this occurrence is perfectly normal", Henry said.
Henry says these islands are located between the North American plate and the Caribbean plate which is along what is known as a transform fault line. One moves to the west. The other moves to the east."There is stress exerted on those rocks from that relative motion and so that causes earthquakes to occur in the fault system that occurs on that boundary", said Henry.
Henry says the earthquake the struck in Cuba on January 9th was a little unusual because it happened in an area where seismic activity tends to be pretty quiet. Although that quake caused tremors in Key West, she says those of us in Miami and surrounding areas shouldn't be overly concerned. The closest an earthquake would occur to us is the northern boundary of the Caribbean plate, which is just south of Cuba.
