LOS IROS DAMAGE NOT CAUSED BY EARTHQUAKE

The UWI Seismic Centre says the massive damage seen in Los Iros, South Trinidad was not due to any seismic activity as is being suggested.

Transcript

00:00The Seismic Centre says the massive damage seen in Los Eros, South Trinidad was not due to any seismic activity as is being suggested.

00:09Instead, it says it is more likely due to mass land movement or landslides caused by recent heavy rainfall.

00:17In a post to its social media platform today, the Seismic Centre says when the occurrence was first reported to them on Friday,

00:24questions were being asked as to whether or not a seismic event occurred close to the area.

00:30But it says no activity was recorded on the seismic network.

00:33Upon inspection of the footage sent in it, it says their engineering seismologist, Dr Ilyas Papadopoulos,

00:41concluded it would be due to landslides caused by recent rains.

00:45The Centre says while the damage looks similar to what occurred after the 2018 earthquake,

00:52a different geological phenomena caused it.

00:55In this case, it says gravity played a pivotal role in the damage observed.

01:00On Sunday, a team from the Ministry of Agriculture visited the site and said an assessment was being done

01:05into the severe land-shifting which caused destruction to 20 hectares of active farmland.

01:14The movement, the Ministry says, resulted in crop loss, damaged infrastructure,

01:19and restricted access to over 35 farmers.