Quake ‘not likely’

The likelihood of an earthquake hitting Barbados is remote, a geologist said yesterday.
Andre Brathwaite, a former Government geologist, told the MIDWEEK NATION that while Barbados would experience tremors and aftershocks, it was unlikely that the island would experience the full effects of an earthquake.
In reference to yesterday’s jolt from an earthquake east of Martinique which many Barbadians felt around 5:30 a.m., Brathwaite said: “In my capacity as an experienced and qualified geologist who knows the Caribbean and Barbados very well, an earthquake occurring 120 miles away with an epicentre (the focal point of an earthquake) 100 miles deep is not considered an earthquake in our isle – that is nowhere near us.”  
While acknowledging that the quake, which measured 6.4 on the Richter scale, was still “pretty large”, he said that “our tectonic location does not position us in any way for Barbados to get any devastating earthquake situation”.
“Barbados is sitting on two tectonic plates – the Caribbean plate and the Americas plate. We are on a subduction fault zone. However, our positioning does not allow us to receive any adverse effects from any earthquake type events.