A 4.1 earthquake struck 15 km southwest of Salvaleón de Higüey in the Dominican Republic today. Centered at 18.515 North, 68.806 West, the epicenter had a depth of 114 k. The earthquake wasn’t strong enough to generate a tsunami.
Today’s earthquake in the Dominican Republic was joined by two new earthquakes that rocked western Puerto Rico in the last 24 hours. Those earthquakes had a magnitude of 3.0 and 3.1 and were centered near the town of Pole Ojea.
Yesterday, a stronger 4.8 earthquake northeast of Puerto Rico prompted the Tsunami Warning Center to issue a bulletin about the quake. But like today’s Dominican Republic quake, it wasn’t strong enough to generate a tsunami.
The day before yesterday, 9 earthquakes rocked Puerto Rico. There are no reports of widespread damage. And like the other quakes, they weren’t significant enough to generate any tsunami.
These earthquakes are occuring just days before the government was planning two multi-agency earthquake and tsunami drills. The first, CaribeWave’21, is scheduled for tomorrow, while the next, LANTEX21, is scheduled for next week on March 17. Officials have said if there’s a significant earthquake and/or actual tsunami threat, the drills would be canceled so that resources could deploy real-time information to the public.
