A PROPOSAL FOR A CARIBBEAN PLATE BOUNDARY OBSERVATORY

Many international earth scientists are familiar with Earthscope, "Plate Boundary Observatory" (PBO), and related projects now underway in US with large funding support by NSF.

This abstract poses whether it is worthwhile to consider developing a similar project for the Caribbean Plate to focus on regional tectonic/seismic/magmatic issues. Such a project must involve international collaborations, and indeed perhaps its main function would be to facilitate such collaborations. Perhaps a collaborative project would increase opportunities for scientific advances, improve the critical mass of scientific endeavor, and enhance chances for increased funding to supplement existing observatories.

Existing regional nuclei include the French volcanic observatories on Guadaloupe and Martinique, the Montserrat Volcano Observatory, the CALIPSO Borehole Project on Montserrat, the SRU seismic installations, various intra-Caribbean island and Central and South American seismic, volcano monitoring, and geoscience institutions, regional GPS monitoring carried out by various US, EU and other teams, IGCP & DSDP and various marine geophysical cruises within the Caribbean and along its Atlantic and Pacific subducting margins. Regional seismic coverage exists at a certain level, but expanding this and adding collaborative broadband and borehole instruments would bring dividends. Broadening CGPS coverage would be desirable. The CALIPSO project has brought strainmeters and downhole seismometers to the Caribbean, but similar installations might be repeated at other localities. Our concept includes Caribbean Plate links to the west with Cocos Plate, and transform boundaries near Cuba, and South America. Large funding efforts might involve EU and individual nation support, and we suggest that funding for such projects might be aided by their integration under the umbrella of a Caribbean PBO project.

Scientific questions could include:
·What determines the spatial distribution of Caribbean plate-boundary deformation?
·What controls the space-time pattern of plate margin and intraplate earthquake occurrence?
·What are the dynamics of magma rise, intrusion, and eruption?
·How can we reduce the Caribbean regional hazards of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions?

These ideas are offered to see if they resonate. We imagine that if there is interest, a workshop might be organized to further discuss a "Caribbean PBO".