FACULTY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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and project involvement, strengthened administrative arm, increased public edu- cation initiatives and increased visibility through community service and public engagements. Changes with staffing included the appointment of Kevin Tankoo to the role of Research Fellow/Seismologist on contract, appointment of Camille Bryant as the Administrative Secretary and the appointment of Donique Blake as the Administra- tive Assistant on temporary contract. Additionally, Kevel Daley resigned from the GIS Officer post in November 2022, Walter Williams subsequently joined the Unit as the GIS Officer in May 2023 on contract and resigned at the end of June 2023. Apart from the regular annual contributions to various state agencies, the Unit remained active with project collaborations and initiatives, fulfilled multiple data requests, provided information on seismic activity, provided consultations to various stakeholders, delivered multiple presentations and lectures, hosted tours, conducted radio and public interviews, completed major repairs to seismic sites and links, participated in several workshops, meetings, seminars and training programs. Throughout the academic year, the Unit also played an active role on the relevant disaster risk management committees, supported the ODPEM in various initiatives as well as provided support to PIOJ in its annual Economic and Social Survey for Jamaica. To compliment these activities, the Unit also hosted two (2) interns from the Department of Geography & Geology for a six (6) weeks through the inaugural internship course, completed hazard assessments and also reviewed/updated public education information. Another highlight for the period was the acknowledgement and commendation from the Prime Minister and several Ministers for the work that the Unit was doing as well as the new developments at the EQU. SEISMIC ACTIVITY SUMMARY The EQU recorded 407 events from August 2022 to the end of July 2023. This included 164 local earthquakes, 91 near region events, 80 regional events, 48 distant events and 24 blasts (Table 1). During this period eight (8) earthquakes were reported as felt, the largest local event being a magnitude 4.9 earthquake with an epicentre in St. Thomas. This event occurred within the Yallahs-Plantain Garden Fault Zone sub-area and was reported as felt throughout several parishes. The most active sub area for the period was the Blue Mountain Block, followed by the Yallahs-Plan- tain Garden Fault Zone then the Rio Minho-Crawle River Fault Zone (Figure 1). Figure 2 shows a map with the locations of earthquakes across the island for the period.
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