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Magnitude 6.4 - DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION

2003 September 22 04:45:36 UTC

Preliminary Earthquake Report

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Magnitude 6.4
Date-Time Monday, September 22, 2003 at 04:45:36 (UTC)
= Coordinated Universal Time
Monday, September 22, 2003 at 0:45:36 AM
= local time at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 19.847°N, 70.666°W
Depth 10 km (6 miles) set by location program
Region DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
Distances
NEAR Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic
40 km (25 miles) N of Santiago, Dominican Republic
165 km (105 miles) NNW of SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic
1170 km (730 miles) ESE of Miami, Florida
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 3.1 km (1.9 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters Nst=278, Nph=278, Dmin=371.4 km, Rmss=0.96 sec, Gp= 36°,
M-type=teleseismic moment magnitude (Mw), Version=U
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID usyzak

Tectonic Summary
The earthquake occurred on the diffuse boundary of the Caribbean and North American plates. The Caribbean plate moves to the east with respect to the North American plate at about 2 cm/y. The plate boundary in the Dominican Republic is oriented slightly oblique to the direction of relative plate-motion. The boundary in this region includes major strike-slip faults that accommodate plate-motion that is parallel to the boundary and also dip-slip faults that accommodate plate motion that is perpendicular to the boundary. The moment-tensor solution of the September 22 earthquake implies that it occurred as the result of dip-slip faulting.

Preliminary Earthquake Report
U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver