The devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake that left tens of thousands dead and millions homeless in Haiti may not have been an isolated incident, according to one expert.

Djordje Grujic, an Earth Sciences Professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, says the Caribbean could be susceptible to additional earthquakes because of accumulated energy under the Earth's crust which could cause another "big one" to hit the region.

"To the west of the area affected by this, the likelihood for earthquakes has greatly increased now," Grujic told CTV's Canada AM this week.

Grujic said there is a tectonic plate in the Earth's crust under much of the Caribbean. It covers an area that includes Trinidad, Venezuela, Guatemala, and Honduras, in addition to the island of Hispaniola, where Haiti is located.

The plate has moved about 7 mm each year over the last 78 million years and pressure has been building in the plates, putting the Caribbean at risk.

Grujic said the recent earthquake in Haiti released energy located in a fault line, but there is additional stress at the tips of a seismic line, about 60 kilometres away from Port-au-Prince.

History shows that areas located at the end of a plate often experience major earthquakes after another quake has occurred further down the plate, Grujic said.

A similar incident happened after the 7.6 magnitude tremor that flattened Izmit, Turkey, on August, 17, 1999, killing 17,000 people.

"Just 2 months later, at the end of that broken segment, there was another big one," Grujic said.

Hard to predict

Although scientists say another major earthquake could come, future tremors will be difficult to pinpoint because of the lack of a historical pattern of seismic activity in the area. There simply haven't been any major quakes in recent years.

Grujic said Port-au-Prince recorded a massive earthquake about 250 years ago, which also destroyed the city at the time.

But because it was so long ago, there is little data for seismologists to study.

"On the other end, in California, there are many earthquakes, along similar pathways and faults. There are many more earthquakes and we have better statistics to predict," Grujic said.

He said there is a large part of the Caribbean fault that runs all the way to Jamaica. This section has not seen an earthquake since recorded history began.

"The energy caused by the shifting of plates has been accumulating there," Grujic said.

He said this means that west of this area, earthquakes are now more likely. The area includes much of Central America.