Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago sit at the southern end of the Lesser Antilles, directly above the complex boundary between the Caribbean Plate and the South American Plate, creating one of the Caribbean's most seismically distinctive settings. The dominant tectonic structure is the east-trending El Pilar Fault system — a right-lateral strike-slip fault running along the northern coast of Venezuela and extending into Trinidad — which accommodates eastward motion of the Caribbean Plate relative to South America. This fault system has generated some of the region's larger historical earthquakes. Tobago, lying further northeast, is influenced by the Lesser Antilles [[subduction-zone]] to its east. Trinidad itself, geologically more closely related to South America than to the volcanic arc of the Lesser Antilles, sits on a fold-and-thrust belt formed by the convergence of the Caribbean and South American plates, making its seismicity somewhat different in character from the volcanic arc islands to the north.

The historical earthquake record of Trinidad includes several significant events. The 22 March 1825 earthquake strongly damaged Port of Spain. The 29 October 1766 earthquake (estimated magnitude 7.5) produced severe shaking in Trinidad and was felt across the eastern Caribbean and northern Venezuela. The 24 November 2007 earthquake (magnitude 5.9) near the Bocas del Dragon — the passage between Trinidad and Venezuela — damaged older structures in Port of Spain and was felt across the island. Trinidad and Tobago experienced felt events from the 2001 El Salvador earthquakes and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. In April 1997, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck near Trinidad at a depth of roughly 20 kilometres, causing minor structural damage. The El Pilar Fault in Venezuela has generated multiple M6–7 events in the instrumental era, and events on this structure are regularly felt in Trinidad. The 1997 Cariaco, Venezuela earthquake (magnitude 6.8) killed 70 people and was strongly felt in Trinidad.

The geology of Trinidad reflects its origins as a fragment of the South American continental margin deformed by northward-moving Caribbean Plate tectonics. The Northern Range — the island's backbone mountain chain — consists of Cretaceous metamorphic and sedimentary rocks thrust northward from the Venezuelan fold-and-thrust belt during Cenozoic plate convergence; it is geologically a continuation of the Venezuelan Coastal Range. The oil-bearing sedimentary basins in central and southern Trinidad are part of the same fold belt that has made Venezuela one of the world's great petroleum provinces. The [[fault]] architecture beneath Trinidad is complex, with multiple northeast-trending thrust faults and east-trending strike-slip faults interacting across the island. The University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre, headquartered in Trinidad, maintains the primary regional seismological network for the Eastern Caribbean.