Issues

Latin American countries share similar history, culture, and complicated tectonic settings, and most every Latin American country has experienced at least one earthquake that has significantly impacted its modern society, infrastructure, and economy. We focus here on Puerto Rico, where a century ago the 1918 M_w 7.3 Mona Canyon earthquake and subsequent tsunami caused extensive damage (front; photo from Puerto Rico Ilustrado c. 1918). Today the Puerto Rico Seismic Network (PRSN) monitors seismic activity in the region but more recently has dealt with damages of a different sort—the hurricane destruction of 2017. Hurricane Maria battered vast regions of the island, including the dock in Mayaguez that housed a GPS station and a tide gage (back; the GPS is shown but the tide gage was found 30 m inland; photo courtesy of PRSN). Both events and more are discussed in LaForge (this issue) and are topics at Seismology of the Americas in Miami, Florida, 14–17 May 2018, a joint conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Seismological Commission and the Seismological Society of America.