2018 Swan Islands earthquake
On 9 January 2018, at approximately 8:51 p.m. local time, a 7.5 earthquake struck in the Yucatán Basin of the Caribbean Sea, east of Great Swan Island off the coast of Honduras. The earthquake was felt across Central America, and rattled windows in Tegucigalpa. The earthquake was also felt in the Cayman Islands.
Tsunami advisories were issued for certain areas by the U.S. Tsunami Warning Center. They were later cancelled after further monitoring. No tsunami was generated since the earthquake was an almost pure strike-slip on a near vertical plane, producing little upward movement of the sea floor that would cause a large displacement of water.Earthquake
The earthquake occurred at a depth of around on a transform fault zone known as the Swan Islands Transform Fault in the Cayman Trough, where it forms part of the boundary between the North American Plate and the Caribbean Plate. The area just to the west also produced a large earthquake in 2009 that measured 7.3 on the moment magnitude scale.
