COMMUNICATING SEISMIC HAZARDS TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC WITH THE ARTS AND LOCAL HISTORY IN PUERTO RICO

This presentation describes a transdisciplinary approach for communicating geologic hazards and risk information to the general public in Puerto Rico. All activities were based on a historic research project analyzing primary resources of regional historical archives in Puerto Rico (PR) and the Dominican Republic (DR). Findings were compared with scientific publications in order to create activities related to the events of the October 11, 1918 earthquake and tsunami. Also, the activities must contribute to the 100 years commemorative program by the PR Seismic Network. The first product of the research project is a book for the general public written in Spanish that describes the events during and after the earthquake in the Puerto Rican Archipelago and eastern DR. Book presentations are scheduled between mid-October to December 2018 and the first of these presentations includes a play in which characters who experienced the event narrate and describe the earthquake based on texts form original historic documents.

The epicenter of the 1918 earthquake was located in the Mona Passage, just between PR and the DR in the Caribbean. This indicates a close proximity of the seismic hazard for both countries. The vulnerability of residents in the island on 1918 was significant considering the number of collapsed structures, the limited government financial aid, and the lack of seismologists living in PR, to list some examples. These vulnerabilities combined with a high seismic hazard resulted in a high risk. The island of PR is currently confronting an economic crisis, the majority of their residents have never practiced an earthquake drill, and the island is part of one of the most active seismic regions in the Caribbean plate. Therefore, the risk for the residents of PR is still high and the only option to decrease the vulnerability is be means of improving their resilience. Public policy and decision-making are extremely important when implementing regulations to protect life and infrastructure of any nation. But general literature of seismic events in PR is extremely limited and science descriptions are mainly accessible to geologists and engineers. This research project can provide science information to the general public and serve as a groundwork for research collaboration with other professionals interested in geohazards.