<<

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Map not approved for release by Director USGS U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 14 January 2010

t n S i e g s b m Seismicity of thee e E s c aEr p arth 1900 - 2007 N a r e s P l a i n Plate and Vicinity Eleuthera A T L A N T I C O C E A N a d New Providence I. ys i e A E K r n G u l f o f M e x i c o ida o d x Compiled by Arthur C. Tarr, Susan Rhea, Gavin Hayes, Antonio Villaseñor, Kevin P. FuKeyr Wlesot ng, anor d Harley Benz r u Fl l o m Cat Island TECTONIC SUMMARY G s F I a r s f l o e a T s a n r i t d o 95° 90° 85° r a 80° t 75° San Salvador 70° 65° 60° S t u S i g s b e e D e e p B g a h Extensive diversity of tectonic regimes characterizes the perimeter of the , involving no fewer h B A H A M A S a B m Great a than four major adjacent plates (, , Nazca, and Cocos.) Inclined zones of deep a h -300 -200 -100 0 M e x i c o B a s i n B Exuma a a Long I. m (Wadati-Benioff zones), deep ocean trenches, and arcs of volcanoes clearly indicate of Havana n a k I s oceanic lithosphere along the Central American and margins of the Caribbean plate, while Crooked I. l a 0 100 200 300 400 n 0 C a m p e c h e B a n k d s shallow seismicity and focal mechanisms of major shocks in , northern , and the Cayman Mayaguana I. Acklins I. Ridge and Cayman Trench indicate transform and pull-apart basin . 0 Caicos Is. (U.K.) -100 T U R K S A N D The depth profile panels on this map portray earthquakes that extend from the axis in Isla de la Caicos C A I C O S I S . ( U . K . ) Juventud Camaguey Bank Turks Island the west to depths as great as 300 km beneath Guatemala, and from the Lesser Trench axis in the east PROFILE G -100 C U B A to depths of approximately 200 km beneath and the NE Caribbean. In contrast, seismicity along Merida -200 Grand Inagua the segments of the Caribbean plate margins from Guatemala to and from to western Island Silver Bank Venezuela is indicative of tectonics. Isla Cozumel H i s -200 Santiago p a n i o l G' a T r o u Navidad PROFILE A De g h Bank Along the northern margin of the Caribbean plate, relative North America moves toward the west at 20° U E R T O R I C O T R E N 20° .K.) 1946 P C H i n Is. (U s man approximately 20 mm/yr, resulting in major transcurrent faults (e.g., in Guatemala) and troughs a Cay -300 B H Grand Cayman Island C BRITISH (e.g., Cayman Trench). Farther east, the North America plate subducts beneath the Caribbean plate resulting in Veracruz n E N h 1943 a R 1946 g VIRGIN Île de la H A I T I u t g e T D O M I N I C A N surface expression of the deep Trench and a zone of intermediate focus earthquakes in the a i d o ISLANDS (U.K.) R N Gonâve r h c n R E P U B L I C o u g m a A Port-au- T T r u a y M Santo P U E R T O R I C O ( U . S . ) o -300 -200 -100 0 subducted slab. Y C a r Y Prince Domingo r e h n b A o San Juan g m St. Martin C u M o (U.K.) S o U.S. VIRGIN (France & Neth. Antilles) J A M A I C A r 0 The plate boundary curves around Puerto Rico and the northern where the plate motion vector Villahermosa Kingston T ISLANDS (U.S.) Mona I. a 5 0 of the Caribbean plate relative to the North and South America plates is less oblique, resulting in active island m Vieques (U.S.) S T . K I T T ' S A' u St. Croix Barbuda k Y A N D N E V I S P n arc tectonics. The North and South America plates subduct beneath the Caribbean plate along the Lesser e a St. Kitt's A N T I G U A A N D Turneffe Is. d B H M E X I C O r M U E R T O S T R O U G B A R B U D A -100 Antilles Trench at rates of about 20 mm/yr; consequently, there are both intermediate focus earthquakes within o n L Nevis B o R a t ee Antigua Tuxtla n k e w B E L I Z E o s g G a the subducted South America plate and a chain of active volcanoes along the . s g Gutierrez d rd a n i i R Port-Au Prince I (U.K.) Isla de la l s PROFILE F K i la n a n F' Roatán e d t d G u l f o f Alice a g s Guadeloupe -200 e B d The plate boundary with the South America plate strikes east-west across Trinidad and 1902 B i (France) H o n d u r a s a Shoal 12 January 2010 21:52:09 UTC R n Serranilla k 1 western Venezuela and is characterized by major strike-slip faults (e.g., El Pilar and Boconó faults) and Bank s 0 Marie-Galante 0 B' San Pedro L i g h t n i n g B a n k o e y shallow seismicity, resulting from relative plate motion of about 20 mm/yr. Further to the west, a broad zone

Sula g a

d 18.451° N., 72.444° W. g

G U A T E M A L A 1976 i e D O M I N I C A R a

B' g of convergent deformation trends southwest across western Venezuela and central Columbia. Plate boundaries e p u Depth 10 km d

S a i P F R are not well defined across northern South America, but there is a transition from Caribbean/South America Mw = 7 (USGS)

15° s 15°

. e

Z s

Guatemala n convergence in the east to Nazca/South America convergence in the west, described in more detail below. The . v d

H O N D U R A S e i (France)

F n

A

g s 1950 a

c C' l

Cayos Miskitos d a s transition zone is characterized by high seismic hazard.

i I e V e n e z u e l a n B a s i n

20 B

S E A d N R p 0 C A R I B B E A

Tegucigalpa r e 1902 a r a t e A 0 S T . L U C I A M d w

g E e

0 n L n d

a d S n i I 2 u A n i L i St. Lucia D n i The Nazca-Caribbean plate boundary offshore of Columbia is characterized by convergence (

V s 1942 e a R San A r D D e W

a

h O a g

c L R r d e E Salvador M B G subducting under South America plate) at about 65 mm/yr. The 6 January 1906 Mw = 8.5 megathrust e i T Isla de Providencia p A o 2001 R B A R B A D O S M St. Vincent e g t subduction occurred on a shallow-dipping interface of this plate boundary segment. The 1906 E s n R ca i n a e o ua I ns s b N I C A R A G U A d o o au C F a earthquake occurred in the -Ecuador , with a seismic moment (Mo; equivalent to radiated B S T . V I N C E N T aA N D h A de N E T H E R L A N D S E T e T lfo 30 n b T H E G R E N A D rI N E S T R Go 0 Isla de San Andres i a A N T I L L E S The Grenadines energy) of 6x10**28 dyne-cm (Okal, 1992), and a moment magnitude (Mw) of 8.5 (Tarr and others, 2009.) E 50 b (Neth.) a N m Islas B C Managua l o B H I. del Maiz Grande o Curaçao Los Roques The nucleation point of this earthquake is indicated on the map ( rupture area is from Kanamori and McNally, C (Venez.) G R E N A D A 1 Isla 1992 L 1982.) 0 a 0 N g Orchilla ic o Isla Blanquilla (Venez.) a d ra e G o l f o d e (Venez.) g u 0 100 200 300 400 a Ve n e z u e l a 1900 Isla La Tortuga Along the western coast of , the subducts beneath the Caribbean plate at rates of Barranquilla (Venez.) Isla de Margarita (Venez.) 72-81 mm/yr, resulting in a relatively high seismic hazard and a chain of numerous active volcanoes; here C Maracaibo T R I N I D A D A N D C l a r k B a s i n Caracas T O B A G O intermediate-focus earthquakes occur within the subducted Cocos plate to depths of nearly 300 km. 0 D' Cartagena Valencia Maracay k Barquisimeto T r i n i d a d C O S T A n E' 10° San Jose a Lago de 10° B 1991 DATA SOURCES R I C A n Maracaibo G u a r d i a n S e a m o u n t a -100 c l o V -500 -400 -300 -200 -100 0 Earthquakes: (a) the Centennial earthquake catalog (Engdahl and Villaseñor, 2002) and annual supplements for the interval 1900-2007, where the Golfo de Los Mosquitos magnitude floor is 5.5 globally and (b) a catalog of earthquakes having high-quality depth determinations for the period 1964-2002 and a magnitude F i s h e r S e a m o u n t 1983 -200 Bahia de Panamá range of 5.0≥M≤5.4 (Engdahl, personal communication.) e P A N A M A Arch. de las PROFILE B d g 0 i n Perlas Great Earthquakes (M≥8.3): nucleation points are plotted with a special symbol, their rupture areas are shown as pale yellow polygons. Major R i a s Golfo de Chiriqui V E N E Z U E L A earthquakes (M≥7.5) are labeled with the year of occurrence. g a Cucuta a n -300 r l B D 1934 Golfo de Panamá e a I. Coiba The Seismic Hazard and Relative Plate Motion panel displays the generalized seismic hazard of the region (Giardini and others, 1999) and B a l -100 m representative relative plate motion vectors of the Caribbean plate relative to the adjacent Pacific, North and South America plates using the NUVEL-1A t a Bucaramanga model (DeMets, et.al., 1994) and updates (Dixon, et.al., 1998; Weber, et.al., 2001). u a G -200 Base map data sources include GEBCO 2008, Volcanoes of the World dataset (Siebert and Simkin, 2002), plate boundaries (Bird, 2003), Digital Chart of the World and ESRI. e Medellin P A C I F I C O C E A N g d i PROFILE E

R . REFERENCES

e a Bird, Peter, 2003, An updated digital model of plate boundaries: Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems, v. 4, no. 3, 52p. Isla del Coco b MAP EXPLANATION -300 g i P a n a m a W e s t C o c o s () d o British Oceanographic Data Centre, 2003, Centenary Edition of the GEBCO Digital Atlas [CD-ROM]: Liverpool, UK. C S e a m o u n t i DeMets, C., Gordon, R.G., Argus, D.F., and Stein, S., 1994, Effects of recent revisions to the geomagnetic time scale on estimates of current plate R B a s i n Manizales Magnitude Classes Plate Boundaries s G motions: Geophys. Res. Lett., v. 21, 2191-2194. 5° e 5° o g 4 - 5.9 U Major boundary DeMets, C., Jansma, P.E., Mattioli, G.S., Dixon, T.H., Farina, F., Bilham, R,. Calais, E., Mann, P., 2000, GPS geodetic constraints on Caribbean -North c i d Bogota o R Ibague Y America plate motion: Geophys. Res. Lett., v. 27, 437-440. l o 6 - 6.4 Diffuse boundary C e l p A Dixon, T. H., F. Farina, C. DeMets, P. Jansma, P. Mann, and E. Calais, 1998, Relative motion between the Caribbean and North American plates and a M 6.5 - 6.9 DN epth of Focus related boundary zone deformation from a decade of GPS observations, J. Geophys. Res., 103(B7), 15,157–15,182. Engdahl, E.R. and Villaseñor, Antonio, 2002, Global seismicity 1900-1999. in International Handbook of Earthquake and Engineering , 7 - 7.4 A S U R I N A M E H C O L O M B I A 0 - 69 km C Cali Chap. 41, v. 81(A), p. 1-26. N 7.5 70 - 299 km P a r a m o u n t M e d i n a E Giardini, D., Grünthal, G., Shedlock, K., Zhang, P. and Global Seismic Hazards Program, 1999, Global Seismic Hazards Map, S e a m o u n t R S e a m o u n t T http://seismo.ethz.ch/GSHAP 7.6 300 - 700 km N GLOBE Task Team and Hastings, D.A., Dunbar, P.K., Elpingstone, G.M., Bootz, M., Murakami, H., Maruyama, H., Masaharu, H., Holland, P., Payne, A C o I J., Bryant, N., Logan, L., Muller, J.-P., Schreier, G., and MacDonald, J.S., 1999, The Global Land One-kilometer Base Elevation (GLOBE) Digital l ó n R i B 7.7 Nucleation Points d g e M Elevation Model, Version 1.0, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrttion, National Geophysical Data Center, Boulder, Colorado, USA. O L 7.8 Rupture Zones McCann, 2006, Estimating the threat of tsunamigenic earthquakes and earthquake induced landslide in the Caribbean, in Caribbean Tusnami O

C 1979 Active Volcanoes Hazard, Proceedings of the NSF Caribbean Tsunami Workshop, 2004, p.43-65. Isla Culpepper 7.9 Siebert, L., and Simkin, T., 2002, Volcanoes of the World: An illustrated catalog of Holocene volcanoes and their eruptions: Smithsonian Institution, Mean Slab Depth Global Volcanism Program Digital Information series, GVP-3. http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/ Isla Wenman H Tarr, A. C., bla bla bla, 2009, in press, Global Seismicity 1900 – 2007, USGS Science Investigation Map. -100 0 100 200 300 1958 8.0 50 km Weber, J.C., Dixon, T.H., DeMets, C., Ambeh, W.B., Jansma, P., Mattioli, G., Saleh, J., Sella, G., Bilham, R. and Pérez, O. 2001, GPS estimate of 100 relative motion between the Caribbean and South American plates, and geologic implications for Trinidad and Venezuela: Geology, v. 29, no. 1, p. 75- Isla Pinta C 8.1 Isla Marchena 200 0 1942 G a l a p a g o s I s l a n d s 300 0° Isla San Salvador Quito 8.2 0° Seismic Hazard and Relative Plate Motion NORTH AMERICA PLATE ( A r c h i p i é l a g o d e C o l ó n ) N 600 G u l f o f M e x i c o ( E c u a d o r ) Isla Fernandina B R A Z I L 90°W 80°W 70°W 60°W -100 Isla Santa Cruz B A H A M A S Isla San Cristóbal Havana Isla Isabela i d g e E e R E C U A D O R T U R K S A N D Isla Santa Maria C a r n e g i C A I C O S I S . ( U . K . ) -200 Isla Española Merida C U B A PROFILE C 20.0 R Zone of aftershocks or Intensity MMI 8 (1492-2004) 20.0 -100 0 100 200 A l g o l S e a m o u n t Guayaquil 20°N 20°N

6 H A I T I BRITISH Santo VIRGIN 0 Other events M 7 and greater (1492-2004) D O M I N I C A N RE P U B L I C ISLANDS (U.K.) 0 Domingo PUERTO RICO (U.S.) T 1

0 Port-au- U.S. VIRGIN 20.0 ISLANDS (U.S.) 0 0 P E R U Kingston Events M 6.5 - 7 (1701-2004) Prince ST. KITT'S FIGURE EXPLANATION AND NEVIS ANTIGUA AND Tsunamigenic Non-Tsunamigenic BARBUDA 95° 90° 85° 80° 75° 70° 65° 60° B E L I Z E Peak Ground Acceleration g e Universal Transverse Mercator Projection -100 i d 20.0 R 1:8,000,000 0 - 0.2 m/sec² a Scale 1852 1887 DOMINICA PROFILE D l v G U A T E M A L A C A R I B B E A N S E A Digital map database and cartography by Susan Rhea and Art Tarr j a 1842 r i 0 100 200 E 300 400 500 600 700 800 1946 0.2 - 0.4 G Guatemala H O N D U R A S KILOMETERS 1943 1787 Tegucigalpa CARIBBEAN PLATE ST. LUCIA 0.4 - 0.8 E L S A L V 1907 A D O R BARBADOS 0.8 - 1.6

ST. VINCENT AND

L L e L N I C A R A G U A THE GRENADINES g 72.6 i d 1918 1867 Managua 1.6 - 3.2 R 1690 GRENADA o d 1770 a 1974 3.2 - 6.4

r 1751 20.0

I I

a I Barranquilla l v 1856 20.0 A 1843 81.2 Maracaibo 6.4 - 9.8 . Cartagena Caracas T R I N I D A D A N D T O B A G O Historic C DEPTH PROFILE EXPLANATION O S Barquisimeto Valencia T -100 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 A 10°N R 10°N Magnitude Classes Depth of Focus I C

1969 A Relative Plate Motion

H H H Panama 4 - 5.9 0 - 69 km 100 Earthquakes TRENCH AXIS PA N A M A 11.0 - 19.9 6 - 6.4 70 - 299 km V E N E Z U E L A

Profiles of earthquake and 0 20.0 - 39.9

C C 6.5 - 6.9 300 - 700 km C locations are constructed from the mapped and 7 - 7.4 -100 PA C I F I C O C E A N 65.0 Medellin 40.0 - 59.9

Nucleation Points data. Locations of the profile intersection

7.5 with the surface are drawn in the map and SOUTH AMERICA PLATE -200 Tsunami G 7.6 labeled to coincide with the profile label. NAZCA Bogota U 60.0 - 79.9 Quaternary Volcanoes Y

COCOS PLATE A F R E N C H

Length of the profile graphic is the same PLATE N G U Y A N A - - 7.7 -300 - Cali C O L O M B I A A S U R I N A M E Structure as in the map. Distance in kilometers from 1492 - 2004

7.8 the trench axis is indicated in the X PROFILE X 1888 80.0 - 100.0

Air -400

direction, depth in kilometers is indicated 1812 7.9 Crust in the Y direction. There is no vertical -500 1882 1900

Note: Historic earthquakes 1530 Plate Boundaries

8.0 Upper Mantle exaggeration. See Explanation at side for

U U

Transition Zone color key. Not all earth layers are visible -600 U in the interior and west Quito Subduction on every map. 0° 0° 8.1 Lower Mantle coast of Central and South Transform

-700 E C U A D O R R R R America are not included Divergent 8.2 Guayaquil in this figure. Others

Manaus E E E

90°W 80°W 70°W 60°W

P P P P E R U