2025 Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands Long-term National Seismic Hazard Model
We anticipate the final 2025 PRVI NSHM to be available by December 21st 2025.
Public Comment Period Open for the 2025 PRVI NSHM Documentation:
March 18 – April 18, 2025
We are pleased to announce that we have completed a draft of the 2025 Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands (PRVI) National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) that has been submitted for review by two external review panels and also a peer-reviewed journal. Concurrently, we open our “public comment period” in which anyone can provide comments on the model and documentation. The public comment period will run from Tuesday, March 18 through Friday, April 18th, 2025. If you would like to provide comments, please email nshmp-support@usgs.gov. The National Seismic Hazard Model Project will address and reconcile as many comments as possible during the revision process over the next few months.
The 2025 update of the U.S. National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) defines the potential for earthquake ground shaking for various probability levels across the region of Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands and is applied in seismic provisions of building codes, insurance rate structures, risk assessments, and other public policy. The updated model represents an assessment of the best available science in earthquake hazards and is an update to the previous NSHM of 2003. This region-specific update is a time-independent probabilistic seismic hazard model. New data and methods include earthquake catalogs (excluding induced earthquakes), alternative declustering methods, spatially smoothed seismicity, new geodetic- and geologic-based fault and deformation models, and earthquake rupture forecast models accounting for a more complete representation of potential earthquakes in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Media
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
|
Supporting Documentation:
(preliminary listing)
Title | Authors | URL |
| Geologic input databases for the 2025 Puerto Rico—U.S. Virgin Islands National Seismic Hazard Model update: Crustal faults component | Thompson Jobe JA, Briggs RW and others | https://doi.org/10.1785/0220230222 |
| Earthquake geology inputs for the National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) 2025 (Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands), version 1.0 | Thompson Jobe JA, Briggs RW and others | https://doi.org/10.5066/P9ONHNOD |
| Data release for luminescence: Neotectonic mapping of Puerto Rico | Mahan SA, Gray HJ and Thompson Jobe JA | https://doi.org/10.5066/P9EAILCD |
| Neotectonic mapping of Puerto Rico | Thompson Jobe JA, Briggs RW and others | https://doi.org/10.26443/seismica.v3i1.1102 |
We anticipate the final 2025 PRVI NSHM to be available by December 21st 2025.
Public Comment Period Open for the 2025 PRVI NSHM Documentation:
March 18 – April 18, 2025
We are pleased to announce that we have completed a draft of the 2025 Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands (PRVI) National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) that has been submitted for review by two external review panels and also a peer-reviewed journal. Concurrently, we open our “public comment period” in which anyone can provide comments on the model and documentation. The public comment period will run from Tuesday, March 18 through Friday, April 18th, 2025. If you would like to provide comments, please email nshmp-support@usgs.gov. The National Seismic Hazard Model Project will address and reconcile as many comments as possible during the revision process over the next few months.
The 2025 update of the U.S. National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) defines the potential for earthquake ground shaking for various probability levels across the region of Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands and is applied in seismic provisions of building codes, insurance rate structures, risk assessments, and other public policy. The updated model represents an assessment of the best available science in earthquake hazards and is an update to the previous NSHM of 2003. This region-specific update is a time-independent probabilistic seismic hazard model. New data and methods include earthquake catalogs (excluding induced earthquakes), alternative declustering methods, spatially smoothed seismicity, new geodetic- and geologic-based fault and deformation models, and earthquake rupture forecast models accounting for a more complete representation of potential earthquakes in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Media
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
|
Supporting Documentation:
(preliminary listing)
Title | Authors | URL |
| Geologic input databases for the 2025 Puerto Rico—U.S. Virgin Islands National Seismic Hazard Model update: Crustal faults component | Thompson Jobe JA, Briggs RW and others | https://doi.org/10.1785/0220230222 |
| Earthquake geology inputs for the National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) 2025 (Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands), version 1.0 | Thompson Jobe JA, Briggs RW and others | https://doi.org/10.5066/P9ONHNOD |
| Data release for luminescence: Neotectonic mapping of Puerto Rico | Mahan SA, Gray HJ and Thompson Jobe JA | https://doi.org/10.5066/P9EAILCD |
| Neotectonic mapping of Puerto Rico | Thompson Jobe JA, Briggs RW and others | https://doi.org/10.26443/seismica.v3i1.1102 |