Magnitude earthquake 7.6 Shakes Caribbean, Tsunami Advice

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An earthquake of magnitude 7.6 rattled the Caribbean Sea on Saturday evening (local time), US monitoring agencies said. The quake struck north of Honduras, about 130 miles (209 kilometres) off the coast of the Cayman Islands.


The temblor struck at a shallow depth of 10 km (6.21 miles), the US Geological Survey said.


The US Tsunami Warning System said there was a tsunami warning after the quake for the Caribbean Sea and north of Honduras. The agency said a tsunami was not expected on the US Atlantic or Gulf Coast after the quake, but it issued advisories for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.


"Hazardous tsunami waves" set off by the quake were possible within 620 miles of the epicentre along the coasts of the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Cuba, Mexico, Honduras, Bahamas, Belize, Haiti, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua and Guatemala, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.


Later, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that tsunami waves between 1 and 3 meters above tide level were possible along parts of Cuba's coast. Smaller waves of 0.3 to 1 meter were forecast for the Honduran and Cayman Islands coasts.


After initially warning of tsunami threats to more than a dozen countries, the US government monitor later cancelled all but three of its alerts, but said "small sea level changes may occur."


Meanwhile, several Caribbean nations including Honduras, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the Cayman Islands have issued evacuation warnings for residents living in coastal areas.


The Cayman Islands government warned in a message on its website: "Residents living near the coastline are encouraged to move inland."