A minor seismic event has been detected off the northeastern coast of Antigua by a leading Caribbean geological monitoring agency, according to an early update issued on Tuesday. The University of the West Indies (UWI) Seismic Research Centre, which tracks earthquake activity across the Caribbean region, logged the shallow tremor at 11:36 a.m. local time.
Preliminary automatic readings put the magnitude of the earthquake at 3.6, with a focal depth of 10 kilometers below the ocean surface. The epicenter falls within the geologically active Leeward Islands, an island chain that forms part of the broader Lesser Antilles in the eastern Caribbean Sea. Several population centers are located within a 160-kilometer radius of the quake’s recorded location: Saint John’s, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda, sits roughly 138 kilometers to the epicenter’s northwest; Basseterre, the capital of St. Kitts and Nevis, lies approximately 103 kilometers to the north-northeast; and Brades, the administrative center of Montserrat, is around 158 kilometers to the north-northwest.
In the immediate aftermath of the tremor, emergency management agencies have not received any reports of structural damage or harm to local residents. The UWI Seismic Research Centre emphasized that the current location and magnitude data are preliminary, and official readings may be adjusted after experts complete full manual analysis of the seismic recordings.