Puerto Rico Earthquakes 2019 - 2020
Although the
island itself was born in fire, Puerto Rico has not had an active
volcano for millions of years. It is very unlikely there will be
anything similar to the birth of Paricutin in Mexico which went from a
cornfield to over 200 meters high during the period 1943 (see images
below) to 1952.
The more realistic volcanic dangers for Puerto Rico are that a
Caribbean volcano
(1) ejects a great deal of ash into the
atomosphere and disrupts air transportation or (2) erupts
cataclysmically like Krakatau in 1883 and launches a tsunami or
(3) a very large volcano on a coast has a slope collapse and generates a
tsunami wave somewhat similar to Lituya Bay in Alaska in 1958. In this
last scenario our simulations suggest none of the current Caribbean
volcanoes would be able to put enough rock in the water quickly enough
to be a danger.
Puerto Rico and its neighbors need to cooperate
on two more or less parallel tsunami buoy networks from Cuba to
Trinidad with extensions for the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Aruba,
Bonaire and Curacao. The buoy networks are not really enough - they
need to be connected to computer systems that can broadcast tsunami
warnings via emails and cellular phone messages. There will likely not
be much time if the waves are travelling 500 miles per hour.
Recommendations -
tracking volcanic eruptions