A 3.8-magnitude earthquake shook sections of Kingston and St Andrew on Sunday night -- the ninth such event felt in Jamaica since the start of the year.

The strength of the seismic activity was not enough to cause any structural damage, but geophysicist Dr Lyndon Brown said it was a reminder to Jamaicans be prepared for earthquakes.

"We are in a very active zone. Earthquakes are always happening. When we have these events, (it is a reminder that) we have to be very conscious of how we build. We can't just have everybody building how they want," Brown, a research fellow at the University of the West Indies (UWI) and head of the Earthquake Unit, told the Observer.

"I would advise that people just always be prepared for such events. Remember the "drop, cover, hold" rule that ODPEM (Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management) tries to impart," he added.

It was a sentiment echoed by Raymond Stewart, the seismic analyst at the UWI-based Earthquake Unit.

"The thing is that Jamaica is well faulted and so we can always expect earthquakes to occur. Earthquakes have no season, so it is important to be prepared. Who could have predicted we would have had an earthquake on Sunday?" he said.

The epicenter of Sunday's tremor was near Chestervale in St Andrew, which forms a part of the most active seismic zone on the island. With a reported depth of 10.8 kilometres, it was felt in, among other places, Liguanea, Beverley Hills and Washington Gardens.

"(There was) no damage," noted Brown. "We wouldn't expect any damage with this sort of event. If there is anything happening, we would expect things falling off shelves, but no structural damage. In the past, we have seen damage with events over five magnitude and to houses not built to any code."

Four of the other tremors felt on the island this year originated here -- one of them near Hope Bay, Portland on October 7; another near Silver Hill Gap on August 16; and a third near Chestervale, St Andrew on April 14. The precise location of the fourth, felt on August 29, was not determined.

The other events had their epicentre in Northern Haiti, Cayman, and off the southern coast of Cuba.