The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) has signed a two year, $235,000 agreement to help fund new monitors within regional “hot spots” in order to strengthen earthquake monitoring in the Caribbean, according to a CCRIF statement issued Saturday.
The new monitors are part of new partnership between the CCRIF and the Seismic Research Centre (SRC) of The University of the West Indies. The program will add 12 motion instruments in Grenada, Barbados, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Antigua & Barbuda, St Kitts & Nevis and Jamaica to the existing 50 stations currently run by the SRC, the statement said.
The new instruments will focus on “hot spots” in the Easter Caribbean and Jamaica. “This initiative will enable the Seismic Research Centre to improve the level of monitoring and therefore to improve the quality of the advice and information provided to regional governments regarding emergency response, public safety and loss mitigation,” said Dr. Joan Latchman, acting director of the SRC
The two-year project which will cost $235,000 with $120,000 provided by CCRIF, according to the statement.
Jamaica has a “particular history of destructive earthquakes” with about 200 earthquakes located in and around the island per year, according to the CCRIF statement.
