The 1839 Martinique earthquake occurred on the morning of January 11 with an estimated magnitude of 7.8 , the largest in the

Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles ( es, link=no, Antillas Menores; french: link=no, Petites Antilles; pap, Antias Menor; nl, Kleine Antillen) are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. Most of them are part of a long, partially volcanic island arc betwe ...

since

1690 Events January–March * January 2 – The Ottoman Empire defeats Serbian rebels and Austrian troops in battle at Kaçanik Gorge, prompting more than 30,000 Serb refugees to flee northward from Kosovo, Macedonia and Sandžak to the Aus ...

. The maximum intensity of this earthquake was assigned IX on both the

Mercalli The Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MM, MMI, or MCS), developed from Giuseppe Mercalli's Mercalli intensity scale of 1902, is a seismic intensity scale used for measuring the intensity of shaking produced by an earthquake. It measures the eff ...

and MSK intensity scales, which left the cities of Saint-Pierre and Fort Royal almost completely destroyed. Estimation on the number of human losses varies from 390 to 4,000 making this one of the deadliest earthquakes in the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

Tectonic setting

The Lesser Antilles subduction zone marks the boundary where the

North American Plate The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Cuba, the Bahamas, extreme northeastern Asia, and parts of Iceland and the Azores. With an area of , it is the Earth's second largest tectonic plate, behind the Pacific ...

subducts Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, the ...

or dives beneath the

Caribbean Plate The Caribbean Plate is a mostly oceanic tectonic plate underlying Central America and the Caribbean Sea off the north coast of South America. Roughly 3.2 million square kilometers (1.2 million square miles) in area, the Caribbean Plate borders ...

at ~2 cm/yr along the subduction interface. Interaction between these two lithospheres can sometimes produce

megathrust earthquakes Megathrust earthquakes occur at convergent plate boundaries, where one tectonic plate is forced underneath another. The earthquakes are caused by slip along the thrust fault that forms the contact between the two plates. These interplate earthqua ...

although there has been no recent megathrust quakes on the fault other than the 1839 and 1843 events. Moderately large earthquakes have occurred near the megathrust in recent years but none on the megathrust. Since 1973, there have only been just a little over 30 thrust earthquakes on the subduction zone with magnitudes around the 5.0 range. A plausible explanation for this is the slow rate of convergence resulting in the megathrust becoming seismically devoid of activity for hundreds to thousands of years before rupturing in great quakes. A similar effect was seen prior to the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, and in Japan's

Nankai Trough The is a submarine trough located south of the Nankaidō region of Japan's island of Honshu, extending approximately offshore. The underlying fault, the ''Nankai megathrust,'' is the source of the devastating Nankai megathrust earthquakes, wh ...

and the

Cascadia subduction zone The Cascadia subduction zone is a convergent plate boundary that stretches from northern Vancouver Island in Canada to Northern California in the United States. It is a very long, sloping subduction zone where the Explorer, Juan de Fuca, and ...

. At the present moment, the Lesser Antilles subduction zone has been determined to be locked and has the potential to generate an earthquake of 8.95 to 9.58.

Earthquake

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...

, intensity IX was felt throughout the island. On the island of

Saint Lucia Saint Lucia ( acf, Sent Lisi, french: Sainte-Lucie) is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. The island was previously called Iouanalao and later Hewanorra, names given by the native Arawaks and Caribs, two Amerindian ...

and

Dominica Dominica ( or ; Kalinago: ; french: Dominique; Dominican Creole French: ), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. It is geographically ...

, intensity IX persisted, but weakened to VIII at the southern and northern part of the islands respectively. Level VIII to VI was felt in Guadeloupe and on

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Saint Vincent and the Grenadines () is an island country in the Caribbean. It is located in the southeast Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, which lie in the West Indies at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea wh ...

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

was hit with VII shaking. Weaker intensities of V and lesser was felt in the northern Lesser Antilles and in

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

and

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

. A moment magnitude of 8.0 is more consistent with the intensities reported. It is believed that the megathrust ruptured for 140 km and had an average slip of 8 meters. Estimates for the earthquake's magnitude varies between 7.5 and 8.0 on the and scales. A probable epicenter location is east of Martinique, west of where the

Saint Lucia Ridge In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Ortho ...

subducts. This area is known for its high seismicity, and small earthquakes are recorded regularly. A

seismic swarm In seismology, an earthquake swarm is a sequence of seismic events occurring in a local area within a relatively short period. The time span used to define a swarm varies, but may be days, months, or years. Such an energy release is different f ...

was reported in the Valley of Desolation on

in 1841; a similar observation made in 1843 after the 8.5 Guadeloupe earthquake. Both earthquakes likely increased the coulomb stress on shallow faults within the island arc which promoted two significant earthquakes in 1897. They also raised the extensional strain on several volcanoes except Soufrière Hills.

Impact

The morning of January 11 in Martinique was disrupted by three instances of violent shaking which varied in duration from 30 seconds to two minutes. The earthquake was felt throughout the Lesser Antilles but the most serious damage was on the island of Martinique. At Fort Royal, the entire city was near totally destroyed. Of the 800 buildings, only 50 to 60 were still safe for occupancy, with 600 completely collapsed and the other 200 partially destroyed. Hotels, a theater, artillery barracks, hospital, and official buildings were among the infrastructures destroyed. The earthquake also damaged the aqueduct which supplies the city with water. Heaps of rubble up to three meters high was left in the quake's aftermath. The devastation was great due to the city being built on marshlands rather than on a stable rocky base. Other cities saw serious destruction but not as severe like in Fort Royal. An area in Saint-Pierre was heavily affected where all but two or three houses were left standing. In other parts of the island, churches and stone construction collapsed. About 300 to 4,000 people died from the earthquake; the death toll varied because officials had not counted the number of slaves killed to avoid compensation requests by their owners. Like the earthquake which occurred in 1843, no

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

was generated.

References

{{Earthquakes in the Caribbean 1839 in France Earthquakes in France Earthquakes in the Caribbean Megathrust earthquakes in North America 19th century in Martinique Martinique articles 1839 disasters in North America Natural disasters in Martinique Natural disasters in Dominica Natural disasters in Saint Lucia 1839 natural disasters

Tectonic setting

Earthquake

Impact

See also

References