The Enriquillo–Plantain Garden fault zone (EPGFZ or EPGZ) is a system of active coaxial left lateral-moving

strike slip fault In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

s which runs along the southern side of the island of

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ) is an island between Geography of Cuba, Cuba and Geography of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the second-largest by List of C ...

, where

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

and the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

are located. The EPGFZ is named for

Lake Enriquillo Lake Enriquillo () is a hypersaline lake in the Dominican Republic located in the southwestern region of the country. Its waters are shared between the provinces of Baoruco Province, Bahoruco and Independencia Province, Independencia, the latter ...

in the Dominican Republic where the fault zone emerges, and extends across the southern portion of Hispaniola through the Caribbean to the region of the

Plantain Garden River The Plantain Garden River is a river in the parish of St Thomas on the island of Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater ...

in Jamaica.

Geology

The EPGFZ shares approximately half of the relative motion between the

North American North America is a continent in the Northern and Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the sou ...

and

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

tectonic plate Plate tectonics (, ) is the scientific theory that the Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago. The model builds on the concept of , an idea developed durin ...

s with the Septentrional-Oriente fault zone which runs along the northern side of Hispaniola. Both faults merge into the Cayman Trench to the west. The fault accommodates about 20.6±1.66 millimeters of lateral motion per year (mm/yr). Additionally, a component of compression is present as the North American plate pushes toward the southwest. This results in vertical deformation manifest in the mountainous terrain of Hispaniola. Some researchers believe that the EPGFZ and the Septentrional-Orient fault zone bound a microplate, dubbed the Gonâve microplate, a area of the northern Caribbean plate that is in the process of shearing off the Caribbean plate and accreting to the North America plate.

Earthquakes

* A magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck southeastern coast of Jamaica in 1692, almost destroying

Port Royal Port Royal () was a town located at the end of the Palisadoes, at the mouth of Kingston Harbour, in southeastern Jamaica. Founded in 1494 by the Spanish, it was once the largest and most prosperous city in the Caribbean, functioning as the cen ...

* An earthquake struck along the southern coast of Hispaniola in 1751. * A magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck the Haitian capital

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( ; ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Haiti, most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 1,200,000 in 2022 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The me ...

in 1770. * The 1907 Kingston earthquake damaged every building in

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long spit (landform), sand spit which connects the town of Por ...

. * The 2010 magnitude 7.0 earthquake occurred near Port-au-Prince along blind thrust faults associated with this fault zone. *The 2021 Haiti earthquake (magnitude 7.2) struck Haiti's Tiburon Peninsula. Other historical large earthquakes in 1860, 1761, 1684, 1673, and 1618 are also likely attributed to the EPGFZ, though none of these have been confirmed in the field as associated with this fault.

Monitoring

A temporary Canadian seismic sensor network of three stations has been established in Haiti along the fault, as of February 19, 2010. The network is not considered permanent, but will remain for quite some time. The stations are in secure locations, being expensive equipment, and are satellite linked to

Natural Resources Canada Natural Resources Canada (NRCan; ; )Natural Resources Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Natural Resources (). is the department of the Government of Canada responsible for natural r ...

in Ottawa. They are solar powered, so do not require grid connections. One station is at the Canadian Embassy in

(in the suburb of Pétion-Ville, in the district of Juvénat), and has a permanent guard of one. Another is at the

Jacmel Airport Jacmel Airport was the sixth busiest airport in Haiti by passenger volume before the 2010 Haiti earthquake, 2010 Haitian earthquake, near the city of Jacmel, on Haiti's south coast. The airport's time zone is GMT –5, and is in World Area Code r ...

, currently run by Canadian Forces personnel. The third is at a

Léogâne Léogâne (; ) is one of the coastal communes in Haiti. It is located in the eponymous Léogâne Arrondissement, which is part of the Ouest Department. The port town is located about west of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. Léogâne has ...

orphanage, considered secure, but there are problems discouraging children from playing with it. The stations are roughly 50 km apart. These are the first seismic stations ever in the country.

References

;Bibliography *

External links

Magnitude 7.0 – Haiti Region, 2010 January 12 21:53:09 UTC
–

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone 2010 Haiti earthquake Seismic faults of North America Geology of Haiti Geology of the Dominican Republic Geology of Jamaica Geology of the Caribbean Geography of the Caribbean Strike-slip faults Buried rupture earthquakes