The causes of earthquakes in the Caribbean

Earthquakes are usually caused when underground rock suddenly breaks and there
is rapid motion along a fault, these faults are fractures between blocks of rock that
allow the blocks to move relative to one another. Faults are caused by the bumping
and sliding of tectonic plates and are more common near the edges of these plates
however earthquakes can still occur along faults far from the edges of plates
although these earthquakes are much less common. This sudden release of energy
unleashes stored-up ‘elastic strain’ energy in the form of seismic waves, which
propagate through the Earth and cause the ground surface to shake. Such
movement on the faults is generally a response to long-term deformation and the
buildup of stress. There are also some forms of human activity that can cause
earthquakes to occur including building construction, mining, fracking for oil and
natural gas, carbon capture and storage, nuclear explosions, geothermal operations
and research experiments that are used to test fault stress.