The 1984 San Pedro Basin earthquake occurred on June 24 at with a

moment magnitude The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pape ...

of 6.7 and a maximum

Mercalli intensity The Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MM, MMI, or MCS), developed from Giuseppe Mercalli's Mercalli intensity scale of 1902, is a seismic intensity scale used for measuring the intensity of shaking produced by an earthquake. It measures the eff ...

of VII (''Very strong''). The event occurred off the southern coast of the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

and resulted in an estimated five fatalities.

Tectonic setting

The northern boundary of the

Caribbean Plate The Caribbean Plate is a mostly oceanic tectonic plate underlying Central America and the Caribbean Sea off the north coast of South America. Roughly 3.2 million square kilometers (1.2 million square miles) in area, the Caribbean Plate borders ...

is a

diffuse Diffusion is the net movement of anything (for example, atoms, ions, molecules, energy) generally from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration. Diffusion is driven by a gradient in Gibbs free energy or chemical p ...

zone of varied fault types. The Muertos Trough marks the southern portion of this zone of deformation with north dipping convergence.

Earthquake

This thrust earthquake occurred on a shallow and north-dipping fault and, at the time, it was the largest instrumentally recorded event in the Los Muertos Trough.

Intensity

The United States Geological Survey estimated that more than 227,000 people were exposed to intensity VII (''Very strong'') shaking and more than 2.8 million experienced intensity VI (''Strong'') shaking.

Aftershock

Five hours after the mainshock, a destructive 5.2 aftershock occurred about 5–10 miles to the northeast. Five deaths are also attributed to this event.

References

External links