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A magnitude 3.8 earthquake was reported this Tuesday at 4:53 PM in the southeastern end of Guantánamo, with its epicenter located 39 kilometers southeast of Imías, according to the seismologist Enrique Diego Arango Arias, head of the National Seismological Service of Cuba.
From the central station of the National Center for Seismological Research (CENAIS), the specialist classified the event as "likely perceptible" in the southeasternmost part of the province, with coordinates lat: 19.83N / lon: 74.42W and a depth of 10 km according to the official report.
Arango Arias clarified that the tremor "is a replica of the one that occurred on March 17 in this area with a magnitude of 6.0," making it one of the latest links in an extensive seismic sequence that has been affecting that region of eastern Cuba for months.
The main earthquake of magnitude 6.0 on March 17 occurred at 12:28 AM, with its epicenter located about 37 km southeast of Imías and a depth of approximately 20 km.
In the first hours after that main earthquake, more than 160 aftershocks were recorded, a number that in 24 hours exceeded 620 and later reports raised to more than 900.
The seismic activity in eastern Cuba had started before the earthquake in March: on February 8, a magnitude 5.6 quake caused cracks in 14 homes and in the Imías polyclinic, and on March 6, another magnitude 5.3 quake hit the same area without reported damages.
All this activity takes place within the dynamics of the Falla de Oriente, the main active tectonic structure of southeastern Cuba, which acts as a transform boundary between the Gonâve microplate and the eastern tip of the island, concentrating the highest seismic hazard in the country.
The earthquake on Tuesday occurred a day after Cuba was shaken by a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in the western part of the country, with an epicenter 101 km northwest of Mantua, Pinar del Río, perceptible in Havana and other western provinces.
The coincidence of seismic activity at both ends of the island in less than 24 hours makes this day particularly noteworthy for the country's geophysical monitoring, although so far no damage or casualties have been reported from the tremor recorded in Guantánamo.
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