The historic earthquakes and paleoliquefaction features demonstrate that the opportunity exists for future liquefaction events to occur in Puerto Rico. 1300, have been found in Holocene floodplain sediments at several sites in western Puerto Rico (Tuttle et al., this volume). Paleoliquefaction features, possibly caused by at least three different earthquakes since A.D. Large earthquakes in 1670, 1787, 1867, and 1918 caused significant damage to major parts of the island, including the San Juan area. Puerto Rico is located in a seismically active region characterized by the convergence and lateral translation of the North America and Caribbean plates. commercial and industrial center in the Caribbean region.
San Juan, with an estimated population of 434,000, is the capital of Puerto Rico, and the most important U.S. This paper discusses development of a 1:20,000 scale liquefaction susceptibility map for the San Juan Quadrangle of Puerto Rico.