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Mapping Offshore Faults in Kingston Bay

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water clouds and city in the distance
Kingston Bay, with the Jamaican capital in the background. Photo: Cecilia McHugh
sediemtn cores
Cores from the seafloor. The sediment layers contain a historic record of local conditions. Chocolate brown layers contain “event deposits.” Photo: Cecilia McHugh

From January 13 to 15, we transited from the Jamaica Passage to Kingston Bay to map offshore structures near the land. Motion along these faults is thought to be associated with the 1907 Kingston earthquake, which shook the capital of the island with a magnitude of 6.2.

The multicorer recovered sediment layers called “event deposits.” These layers are noted by their chocolate brown color. The sediment layers will be dated and analyzed for their chemical composition and physical properties. The goal is to understand the processes that triggered their deposition: Was it an earthquake? Was it a hurricane?

On the gravity corer pipe is a probe that measures heat flow. It penetrates the sediments and measures heat flow variability associated with friction along the fault zone, providing us with information about the area’s earthquake potential.

Heat flow probe attached to the gravity corer pipe
Heat flow probe attached to the gravity corer pipe. Photo: Cecilia McHugh
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Columbia Climate School Giving Day on October 28, 2026, featuring students and renewable energy imagery

October 28, 2026 is Columbia Giving Day! Your gift to Columbia Climate School helps advance interdisciplinary research, educate the next generation of leaders, and transform bold ideas into real-world solutions for climate, Earth, and society.

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