Seismicity in Honduras
Honduras is located on the western corner of the Caribbean plate (CA) where it
interacts with the North American (NA) and Cocos (CO) plates producing a high
level of tectonic and seismic activity.
Plate boundaries are the most important sources of large earthquakes, several M>7
that occurred at the subduction zone of the CO-CA plate boundary have affected
southern Honduras.
Strike-slip motion from the NA-CA plate boundary is carried offshore by the Swan
Islands Fault and continues inland near the Honduras-Guatemala border at the
Motagua-Polochic fault system. Here also M>7.5 earthquakes have produced
damages in northern and western Honduras.
Related to the NA-CA motion a series of mostly north-thrending grabens extends
from southern Guatemala to Central Honduras. These grabens are bordered by active
normal faults capable of producing M>6.2 earthquakes.
In the intraplate region in eastern Honduras a ~300 km long feature appears: the
Guayape Fault. This strike-slip fault shows evidence of at least 50 km of Tertiary
displacement but unfortunately quaternary motion has been poorly constrained.
Seismicity reported is scarce but the lack of instrumentation near the fault makes
difficult record micro-seismicity.
Seismic Network
In Honduras the Comision Permanente de Contingencias (COPECO) is in charge of
the national seismic network. Several attempts have been made in the past to keep the
network running but currently there are not station with data available in real time.
The National University of Honduras (UNAH) aids COPECO with the scientific and
technical support. Also UNAH is working on a small low-budget seismic network for
scientific porpoises. The stations will be deployed at the nine UNAH campuses that
are spread all around the Honduran territory.