An earthquake of 7.4 magnitude struck the Caribbean Thursday.
The earthquake hit around 3 pm EST, centered 26 miles southeast of Roseau, the capital of Dominica. The shaking lasted about 20 seconds, but the after-effect was felt hundreds of miles away in Puerto Rico to the west, and Venezuela and Suriname to the south.
Some people sustained minor injuries, but no major casualties have been reported. The earthquake collapsed the roofs of a bank and a store in the capital of Martinique, Fort-de-France.
In Trinidad, the shaking sent workers streaming out of office towers into the streets of the capital, Port-of-Spain.
Thousands more ran outside in St. Maarten. Flight’s at Princess Juliana International Airport were briefly suspended. In Guyana, lawmakers evacuated the South American country’s parliament building.
The earthquake did not disrupt production at Trinidad’s state-owned oil refinery, Petrotrin, which produces 160,000 barrels of refined gasoline, diesel and oil daily for domestic use and export to countries including the United States.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake struck at a depth of 90 miles, which is too deep to cause a destructive tsunami.
The temblor triggered a series of false quake alarms in California, with computers picking up energy coming out of the Caribbean and erroneously treating it as local seismic activity. The fake quakes began registering nine minutes after the Caribbean quake.
