[5] Schools in Jamaica, as well as corporate and public buildings in Miami, were evacuated after shaking was experienced in parts of the U.S. state of Florida, a region not typically thought of in-relation to seismic activity.

[10] The January 28, 2020, earthquake occurred near the boundary of the Gonâve microplate, a small strip of Oceanic crust between the North American and Caribbean plate.

[11] It is bounded to both north and south by large transform faults that together accommodate the relative displacement of the two major plates.

[11] Large magnitude earthquakes in the Caribbean are primarily located along the boundaries of the Gonâve microplate, a region with high seismicity due to plate interactions.

Farther east, between the Dominican Republic and Barbuda, the interaction between the North American and Caribbean plates grows more complicated.

The Panama fracture zone is the most seismically dynamic transform boundary, located between the Cocos and Nazca plates.

It extends to the Galapagos Rift Zone and the Middle America Trench, forming a critical part of the Cocos-Nazca-Caribbean triple junction.

Earthquakes here are generally shallow and moderate in magnitude, with faulting primarily exhibiting right-lateral strike-slip behavior.

[1] The focal mechanism, combined with an analysis of seismic waveforms, is consistent with strike-slip motion on the Septentrional-Oriente fault zone.

[14] The mainshock was followed by a series of aftershocks, with the largest being a 6.1 Mw event that occurred less than three hours later, to the southeast of Grand Cayman.

It destroyed all the nearby cities including: Cap-Haïtien, Port-de-Paix, Mole-Saint-Nicolas, Santiago de los Caballeros, and many more.

Massive damage was done to the infrastructure from the shaking and many important buildings, such as schools, hospitals, and the Presidential Palace were destroyed.

[20] This earthquake was so destructive due to Haiti's weak infrastructure and their lack of disaster preparedness because most people in their country are living in poverty.

[25] The United States Geological Survey estimated that some parts of Jamaica and Cuba because they were two closest countries from the epicenter.

[26] A six-story building on the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies, containing approximately 300 students, was evacuated.

A survey carried out by the National Center for Seismological Research, found that one house had completely collapsed and another 300 showed some damage.

Areas that had a chance of getting affected were evacuated well before the event occurred due to the well-established protocols in place.

[6][failed verification] This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Geological Survey