A diagram of tectonic plates in the western hemisphere. Photo Credit: US Geological Survey

Haiti’s catastrophic quake could be the first of many in the region, reported the New Scientist on Friday. Accounts of past earthquakes suggest not all the energy built up beneath the fault line was released in Tuesday’s earthquake.

The last known occurrence of a high-magnitude earthquake like Tuesday’s was in the 1700s, when three large earthquakes struck Haiti and the Dominican Republic between 1751 and 1770.

This serial pattern has scientists worrying over the current-day implications, particularly along the fault’s eastern segments beneath Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

In fact, the entire Caribbean is essentially an earthquake zone, rife with fault lines that extend in all directions. The same fault line that runs under Haiti also lies beneath Jamaica to the west. Another fault line snakes along southern Cuba and northern parts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. A third fault line, this one underwater, lies along tectonic plates and is actually the reason these islands exist.

Following the tsunami in Southeast Asia, an article published by Scientific American detailed the impact of tectonic plates on the enormous wave that levelled cities and caused tremendous damage in December 2004. Scientists speculate the oceanic plate beneath India slid as much as 20 metres beneath the Burma land plate, causing a massive displacement of ocean water that was then gravitationally “equalised” by a tsunami wave.

While the risk of a Caribbean tsunami is unclear, seismologists will be keeping a close watch on the region’s underground activity.