November 21, 2004 Earthquake: Basse-Terre, Les Saintes, Guadeloupe

The earthquake occurred in the Dominica Passage, Lesser Antilles, an area between the island countries of Guadeloupe and Dominica. Most of the earthquake effects occurred in Guadeloupe. One person killed, at least two injured and several houses were destroyed or damaged at Trois-Rivieres; one person was injured at Capesterre-Belle-Eau; ten people slightly injured on Les Saintes; at least eight houses destroyed and twenty-five damaged on Terre-de-Bas, Guadeloupe. At least twenty houses damaged and power outages occurred in northern Dominica. Felt in Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis and as far as Saint Lucia.

1 fatality, 12 injured, $155 million in economic losses (reference #13727)

15.75 N Lat, 61.54 W Long. The 2004 earthquakes ruptured a N140°E striking fault plane between Les Saintes and Dominica [Feuillet et al., 2011; Bazin et al., 2010] and was felt with a maximum intensity of VIII in Les Saintes. The intensities determined by the inquiries of Cara et al. [2005] for the 21 November 2004 event range between IV and VIII in Guadeloupe and IV in Martinique. (reference #13355)