On January 7, the island of Puerto Rico was hit by a 6.4 magnitude earthquake. Over the past few weeks, they have been hit by dozens of earthquakes and aftershocks. To this day, they are still dealing with the damage and figuring out recovery.

According to an article published by The Hill newspaper, more than 1,000 earthquakes have hit Puerto Rico over the past three weeks.

This has had several impacts on the physical condition of the island.

According to NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), there has been significant damage done to the island’s land structure with “up to 5.5 inches (14 centimeters) of ground change there [epicenter near Ponce, Puerto Rico]. The ground appeared to shift downward and slightly to the west.”

The satellite was also able to see that there is a severe amount of power outages on the island.

According to an article published by CNN News, NASA compared two satellite pictures that were taken at two different times during the night and noticed a major increase in power outages on the island. In addition to power outages, the New York Times has reported that “the temblors knocked out power to much of the island, seriously damaging homes and buildings and leaving at least one person dead.”

However, the landscape isn’t the only thing suffering. The quakes have taken a toll on the mental state of the people of Puerto Rico, according to an article published by NPR, “they’re too afraid to sleep inside out of fear that theirs could be the next one to crumble if another quake hits.” “The mental health issues that sort of people feel like they’re – you know, mental health officials say it could get out of hand because of all the anxiety, all the uncertainty.”

These severe impacts are due to Puerto Rico’s inexperience with earthquakes. According to the Times article, “major earthquakes in the southwestern part of the island are unusual in recent history.”

Mrs. Hammonds, an ERHS environmental science teacher, explained that “Puerto Rico is on a microplate between the North American plate and the Caribbean plate which are interacting.  [Puerto Rico’s] location near all of these plate borders, [therefore] get a lot of tectonic activity.” 

Mrs. Hammonds continued and said that within the next couple of decades “all the islands in that area should sorta expect high tectonic activity because there’s a bunch of small microplates in that area. Earthquakes will continue to happen that’s not probably going to stop.”

High school student, Laith Awad from Puerto Rico explained that reality of the situation.

“Puerto Rico is going through a lot of changes right now because of these earthquakes. People are mostly scared. In a single day, people feel up to 10 earthquakes and a constant movement of the ground. A lot of people have lost their home and they have no where to go. Most people in the South prefer to sleep outside there own houses because of this fear. ”

Awad also added that there is a significant amount of damage.“Most of the damage that was caused has been in the South side of Puerto Rico. A lot of homes have been destroyed and a lot more were damaged.”

“Most public schools have not started school yet because it’s simply not safe for the children. The people of Puerto Rico never expected for this to happen. There was only on other earthquake years ago on Christmas Eve, but after that nothing.”

“Puerto Rico has dealt with powerful hurricanes before like Irma and Maria, but never earthquakes.”

As the earth continue to shake on the island, Puerto Rico is starting to spark not only physical recovery, but emotional recovery from this event.