Major Earthquake Will Affect Jamaica?!

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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 is saddening to hear considering how life altering a major earthquake can be. Hopefully, they make bigger steps to prepare themselves soon incase this disaster does take place.


https://www.mona.uwi.edu/earthquake/jaequake.php
jablogz.com/2013/04/jamaica-to-brace-for-major-earthquake-warns-seismic-specialists/

Comments

  1. Ana GGFebruary 15, 2019 at 2:24 PM

    Yes, it seems Jamaica is at risk of a big one and if they are not ready for it, the hazard will become a catastrophe...
    It seems the map I saw [below] of their population density puts a lot of people in the south in possible danger...
    http://statinja.gov.jm/MapPage/images/2011%20Population%20Density.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  2. France Hazards and Catastrophes February 15, 2019 at 11:10 PM

    It was very intresting reading your blog this week. But, it is very unfortunate that Jamaica is not very prepared considering that they are at high risk for having strong earthquakes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Diana HughesFebruary 17, 2019 at 7:57 PM

    Hi Destinee,

    I found your blog this week to be very interesting. With all of the earthquakes Jamaica experiences in a year, you would hope they would take the warning of a potentially devastating earthquake a little more serious.

    Diana Hughes

    ReplyDelete

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