Seismotectonics of Jamaica.

This is the first seismological investigation of the stress regime in the Jamaican crust. The fault plane solutions of 32 well-recorded local earthquakes were determined and used as inputs for determining stress directions. The results consistently show that a strike-slip fault regimeexists in three homogeneous crustal areas, namely the Blue Mountain—Wagwater restraining bend of eastern Jamaica, the Rio Minho—Crawle River (RMCR) fault of central Jamaica and the Montpelier–Newmarket belt (MNB) of western Jamaica. However, for the island as a whole, a thrust-faulting regimewas found, but inhomogeneity is implied by the higher level of misfit obtained. These results are in keeping with results of other recent studies in the Jamaica–Cuba region and with the strike-slip regime of the Gonave microplate boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]