List of earthquakes in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands information
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Map showing the epicenters of all the magnitude 5 and greater earthquakes in the eastern region of the Caribbean for the last 100 years. Filled circle color indicates depth and circle size indicates magnitude. The five biggest, most destructive, earthquakes of the last 250 years with magnitudes of 7 and greater are shown by stars.
Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands lie at the boundary between the Caribbean and North American plates, making these territories prone to earthquakes. This is a highly active seismic region both surrounded and traversed by numerous fault lines; to the north, the North American plate subducts into the Caribbean plate, while a number of fault lines cross the main island of Puerto Rico diagonally from southeast to northeast. Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are also located on a microplate that is continuously being trampled by the subduction zone to the north. Puerto Rico is constantly prone to experiencing major earthquakes, superior to 7.0, at any moment.[1]
Map showing epicenters of M≥5 earthquakes up to February 4, 2020, in the 2019–2020 Puerto Rico swarm sequence of earthquakes.
Seismicity in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands is comparable to that of California and the Western United States; however seismicity in the region can be divided into two smaller areas: the more active western part of the island and the less active eastern part that is shared with the US Virgin Islands, where the subduction zone is located. The North American plate moves about 2 cm a year into the Caribbean plate.[2] In addition to the subduction fault there are numerous transform faults that cross the island laterally. These transform or strike-slip faults produce the same kind of horizontal-motion earthquakes that the San Andreas Fault is known to generate. Over millions of years the movement of these faults have influenced Puerto Rico's geography and formed valleys such as the Lajas and the Caguas valleys, the largest of their kind on the island. The fault zone located in the Lajas Valley is of great concern for geologists as it is poorly mapped and might extend for a longer area towards Ponce in the southern coast.
^"Terremotos en Puerto Rico | EcoExploratorio: Museo de Ciencias de Puerto Rico". Retrieved 2021-09-06.
^"Terremotos en Puerto Rico | EcoExploratorio: Museo de Ciencias de Puerto Rico". Retrieved 2021-09-06.
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