Fault Maps of Costa Rica and of Panama (12/10/98)

More than 16,000 earthquakes recorded in this century... New Map Pinpoints Past Caribbean Earthquakes  (added 7/26/98)

Map of current seismicity of the Central American Region

Fault Maps of Costa Rica and of Panama - a note from Michael N. Machette:

The International Lithosphere Program's Task Group II-2 (Major Active Faults of the World) recently released the first of hopefully many products for Central and Southern America. The product is actively compiling data on Quaternary faulting for use in modern seismic hazards assessments. The compilations are mainly conducted by local experts, but the general project is being supervised by Michael Machette of the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver, Colorado, USA.

The first product is the "Map and database of Quaternary faults and folds in Costa Rica and its offshore regions" by W. Montero, P. Denyer, R. Barquero, G.E.Alvarado, H. Cowan, M.N. Machette, K.M. Haller, and R.L.Dart, 1998, U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 98-481, 61 ms. p., 1 plate (1:750,000 scale).

The map and report is available from the USGS through open-file services. The map was prepared in ArcInfo, but an Adobe Illustrator output file is being used for the print-on-demand map. The senior authors have limited copies, but do not have the capabilities (yet) to produce copies of the full-color map.

We anticipate producing a similar map for Panama by the end of the calendar year±. It will be referenced as the "Map and database of Quaternary faults and folds in Panama and its offshore regions" by H. Cowan, M.N. Machette, K.M. Haller, and R.L.Dart, 1998: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 98-___, about 60 ms. p., 1 plate (1:500,000 scale).

For more information about ILP Task Group II-2, visit one of thes sites:

http://geohazards.cr.usgs.gov/paleosei/ILP_Homepages/ILP_II-2_Homepage.htm or

http://www.gfz-potsdam.de/pb4/ilp/projects.htm