A 4.2 magnitude earthquake was registered Wednesday with an epicenter just 39 miles south of George Town, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s website.
The earthquake rattled at a depth of 6.2 miles at 6:55 a.m.
Cayman’s Hazard Management Awareness and Communications Officer Simon Boxall said, “One person confirmed feeling the tremor in Grand Cayman, and there are no reports of any damage.
“Minor tremors occur fairly frequently in the vicinity of the Cayman Islands due the interaction of the Caribbean and North American plates which run just south of the Cayman Islands,” he added.
Travis Ritch, a resident of Lime Tree Bay condominiums, reported feeling the tremor.
“It was only for a second, but I did feel the building move. I wasn’t quite sure what it was,” he said. Reports of earthquakes near Cayman have been recorded as far back as 1849, when the Rev. James Elmslie wrote a letter describing one:
“On the 30th of August last, we had a very severe shock of an earthquake, which alarmed us all. Very near this place (George Town), the earth opened up in more than 20 places, some of them wide and deep. Even at sea the shock was severely felt. One of the island vessels, when twenty miles from land, received such a shock that the crew thought the vessel was broken to pieces. We have much reason to bless God for sparing our lives, when he might have justly destroyed us.”
More recently, a 4.1 magnitude earthquake was recorded south of George Town on Dec. 11, 2012.
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I was laying on the couch watching TV when this happened. Def felt the shake, one little shake. Thought to myself earthquake but it was so short I ignored it until I saw this article.