Natural Disasters of Jamaica

Jamaica has very little information regarding volcanic activity or eruptions... The islands volcano hazard is extremely low. There has only been one known volcanic eruption in Jamaica which produced the Low Layton Lava . Due to this lava, "a prominent east-west ridge [was formed] on the north shore of the island"(Caribbean...). Although there is little activity now, over half of the island of Jamaica is covered by white limestone, which has yellow limestone underneath. There is also older metamorphic and indigenous rocks (which are created by the cooling of molten material) underneath. Jamaica has shallow soils on their upland areas which are particularly susceptible to erosion. http://caribbeanvolcanoes.com/jamaica-geology/ https://www.britannica.com/place/Jamaica

Jamaica experiences roughly 200 minor earthquakes per year, most have a magnitude of 4.0 or less. The most seismically active areas are the Blue Mountain block in eastern Jamaica and the Montpelier-New Market Belt in western Jamaica. Jamaica and Haiti share the same seismically-active plate boundary . This is important to note because Haiti was recently affected by a devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake that wiped out over 316,000 people. Due to this, the professor that predicted Haiti's earthquake warns Jamaica to get prepared for a major hit as well.    Despite the many warnings, Jamaica does not appear to be prepared . The information I was able to find was that they are educated on basic safety measures such as: standing in strong doorways and crawling beneath a desk. However, there is no information that states they have earthquake-proofed their construction to prevent collapses or have emergency warning systems that can be sent out through text, emails, etc.. This

The book Natural Hazards states that tectonic plates are simply large broken up pieces of lithosphere (33). However,  the island of  Jamaica  lies in between two tectonic plates; the  Gonave Microplate  and the  South Jamaican Microplate  which are both Convergent boundaries. Convergent   boundaries happen when plates move towards each other, in this case both move towards the island of  Jamaica  shown on the photo above. This is creating a subduction. There has only been two major earthquakes; one in 1692 that killed over 5,000 people and destroyed over 3,000 buildings. The second one was in 1907 that killed about 1,000 people and 9,000 were left homeless.  Keller, Edward A., Duane E. DeVecchio, and Robert H. Blodgett.  Natural Hazards: Earth's Processes as Hazards, Disasters, and Catastrophes . Boston: Pearson, 2015. Print. https://jis.gov.jm/information/get-thefacts/major-earthquaks-jamaica/  https://caribbeantectonics.weebly.com/caribbean-microplates.html

Natural Hazards:   A natural hazard is a natural phenomenon that might have a negative effect on humans or the environment.  Disasters:   A natural event such as a flood, earthquake, or hurricane that causes great damage or loss of life.  What makes an event a  natural disaster :   10+ people are killed 100+ people are affected There is a declared state of emergency International assistance is requested Catastrophe: A catastrophe is a massive disaster that requires significant expenditure of money and an extended amount of time for recovery to take place.