SUMMARY We use block modelling of GPS site velocities from Jamaica and nearby islands, including Hispaniola, to test alternative plate boundary geometries for deformation in Jamaica and estimate slip rates along the island's major fault zones. Relative to the Caribbean Plate, GPS sites in northern Jamaica move 6.0 ± 0.5 mm yr−1 to the WSW, constituting a lower bound on the motion of the Gônave microplate across its southern boundary in Jamaica. Obliquely convergent motion of all 30 GPS sites on and near Jamaica relative to the island's ∼E–W‐trending strike‐slip faults may be partitioned into 2.6 ± 0.6 mm yr−1 of ∼N–S shortening across submarine faults south of Jamaica and 5–6 mm yr−1 of E–W motion. Guided by geological and seismic information about the strikes and locations of faults in Jamaica, inverse block modelling of the regional GPS velocities rejects plate boundary configurations that presume either a narrow plate boundary in Jamaica or deformation concentrated across a restraining bend defined by the topographically high Blue Mountains of eastern Jamaica. The best‐fitting models instead place most deformation on faults in central Jamaica. The 4–5 mm yr−1 slip rate we estimate for the Plantain Garden fault and Blue Mountain restraining bend of southeastern Jamaica implies significant seismic hazard for the nearby capital of Kingston.

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Kingston, Jamaica, the capital of the Caribbean island nation of Jamaica, is prone to infrequent but devastating earthquakes and tsunamis, yet the locations of the faults responsible for generating these geohazards are poorly known. The city rests precariously at the western terminus of the Enriquillo Plantain Garden Fault (EPGF)—the same fault that ruptured during the 12 January 2010 Haiti earthquake, destroying Port-au-Prince and killing about 250,000 people (Figure 1 inset). Like Haiti, Jamaica has experienced a significant earthquake every few hundred years; however, the exact frequency and location of large earthquakes across Jamaica remain unclear. In the past 300 years, Jamaica has experienced at least two earthquakes (in 1692 and 1907) comparable to the 2010 Haiti earthquake and, like Haiti, these earthquakes caused significant loss of life, triggered tsunamis, slope failure, and caused widespread ground liquefaction (e.g., Sloane, 1694; Tabor, 1920). The 1907 earthquake killed ∼1000 people in Kingston. The 1692 earthquake completely destroyed Port Royal, a city then notorious as a haven for privateers and as the Western Hemisphere's center for slaving operations.

Merging all available databases, a comprehensive and updated earthquake catalogue for El Salvador and surrounding areas has been compiled, containing a total of 2,584 events for the period 1528-2009, covering the geographic window delimited by the coordinates 11.0°-16.5° N and 85.5°-92.0° W, focal depths of 0.0 to 304 km, and the moment magnitudes in the interval 5.0 ≤ M W ≤ 8.1. Events in the catalogue are distributed into six seismogenic sources taking into consideration the tectonic regime affecting El Salvador, the interplay and complexities between shallow crustal, intraplate and interface subduction seismicity has been thoroughly investigated, primarily with the aim of developing detail criteria to delimit the seismogenic sources in order to perform a consistent seismic hazard assessment. A uniform hazard spectrum for San Salvador and seismic hazard maps and their uncertainty have been calculated for the horizontal component of ground motion for rock site conditions using zone and zone free methods. The references cited in the article constitute a comprehensive list of sources of information on the tectonics and seismicity of El Salvador and neighboring Central American countries.

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