2024News

Earthquake felt on Monday at noon; DR collaborating with USGS

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reports the Dominican Republic was impacted by a 4.3 magnitude earthquake at around 12:24pm on Monday, 14 October 2024. The epicenter was 6 km from Las Guaranas, a small town in the municipality of Pimentel in northeastern Duarte province between Cotui and San Francisco de Macoris.

The local National Geological Survey reported the earthquake had a magnitude of 4.7 on the Richter Scale. The quake was felt all the way south in Santo Domingo.

The USGS in March 2024 works in close collaboration with representatives from the National Geological Survey of the Dominican Republic. In March 2024, a mission from the SGN traveled to the USGS headquarters in Reston, Virginia to discuss potential opportunities for collaboration within a diverse array of earth science disciplines.

Edwin García Cocco, director of the SGN, Miguel Peña, senior mining advisor to President Luis Abinader, and David Applegate, USGS director, discussed possible future synergies on mineral assessments, response and adaptation to natural hazards, and procurement of cutting-edge remote sensing products.

Representatives then signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to further augment and support the ongoing partnership between the two agencies.

Bill Cunningham, director of the USGS Office of International Programs; David Applegate, USGS Director; Gustavo Bisbal, USGS Western Hemisphere Science Advisor (acting), Office of International Programs; Edwin García Cocco, National Geological Survey of the Dominican Republic Director; and Miguel Peña, Senior Mining Advisor to the President of the Dominican Republic signed the MOU.

For years, the Dominican Republic has been participating in the Caribbean project, Stakeholder Engagement for Natural Hazards Investigations in the Caribbean (SENHIC) in cooperation with the US Agency for International Development. The project connects USGS researchers with local natural hazards experts in US territories and Caribbean countries to help understand their natural hazard vulnerabilities and disaster response and to help improve mitigation an adaption efforts.

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15 October 2024