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| Rincón, Puerto Rico Photo: Alma Estrada 2019 |
This past summer my family and I visited the island of Puerto Rico as my husband is of Puerto Rican descent. This small and beautiful island is full of vegetation, exotic creatures, and more.
Much to my surprise recently - just about a month or two ago to be exact - Puerto Rico lies at the plate-boundary zone of the Caribbean Plate which shifts east, and the North American plate which shifts west. The boundary is north of the island. This discovery came after hearing about the earthquake that happened recently at the location of the plate boundary.
An evidence of this plate boundary is the fact that I saw volcanic rocks at the beaches. According to NOAA, Puerto Rico once had active volcanoes with the last eruption estimated to have happened approximately 30 million years ago. However, the shifting of both the Caribbean and North American plates causes seismic activity and tsunami warnings near the island and in the neighboring islands as well. Because of the shifting of the plates, I would safely assume that both plates form a strike-slip fault.
REFERNCE:
Chaytor, J. (2019). The northeast caribbean – plate tectonics in action. Retrieved from https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1811/background/geology/welcome.html
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