Revised Estimates of Ground Shaking Hazards From Large Earthquakes Near Trinidad and Tobago

Date: 4/25/2019

Time: 06:00 PM

Room: Grand Ballroom

The twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago is located near the southern margin of the ocean-ocean convergent zone in the eastern Caribbean, where tectonic motion between the interacting Caribbean, North American and South American plates transitions from subduction to strike slip. Earthquake ground motion in this region is influenced by a variety of seismic sources located at varying hypocentral and epicentral distances. The complexity of the hazard from earthquakes is further compounded by the presence of a number of deep sedimentary basins, other tectonic and topographic structures that tend to accentuate ground shaking. Previous seismic hazard assessments of the region have been based on probabilistic estimation of ground shaking from seismicity data and seismo-tectonic inference. In this submission, we use limited strong motion/broadband data microzonation data, and simulations (e.g. Empirical Green Functions method) to produce revised estimates of the hazard posed by future large earthquakes. Our results show that anomalous amplification by sedimentary basins and topographic effects will account for a significant portion of the hazard.

Presenting Author: Lloyd L. Lynch

Authors