Geoscientists Without Borders^®

Kingston Harbor, Jamaica: "Preparing Kingston, Jamaica for the Next Great Earthquake and Related Geohazards."

Partners: Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), Kingston, Jamaica University of Technology, Kingston, Jamaica and the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica, University of West Indies and Jamaica's Navy and Coast Guard

Summary: The University of Texas at Austin, in partnership with the University of West Indies and Jamaica's Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, will assess the location of active faults and the probability of future, large tsunami-producing earthquakes occurring near Kingston. The analysis of a host of geophysical data sets (including marine seismic chirp soundings, shallow marine sediment cores, and passive source seismic data) is be­ing used in conjunction with statistical models to determine the waterfront areas most vulnerable to tsunamis and faulting.

According to Matthew Hornbach, project manager from the University of Texas at Austin: "Our primary motivation for assessing geohazards in Kingston is to make a valuable, hopefully life-saving impact on the people of Jamaica before the next big earthquake occurs. Too often, the scientific community studies geohazards after a disaster happens, when there is relatively little that geoscientists can contribute, because the damage has already been done. Kingston, the capi­tal of the island nation of Jamaica, is adjacent to the same fault that destroyed Port au Prince, (Haiti) and rests at a precarious tipping point in geohazard preparedness. Kingston has enough core resources to maintain a small network of seismic stations, but not enough resources to conduct a systematic geophysical investigation of potentially active faults that threaten the city."

Point of Contact: Matthew Hornbach - math@ig.utexas.edu, University of Texas Austin