Unified Interior Regions
Puerto Rico
States L2 Landing Page Tabs
Hydrology Monitoring Tools
The U.S. Geological Survey provides local and national web-based tools so that policy makers and the public can easily access the information they need to enhance preparedness, response, and resilience.
Real-time and Historical Data
These pages provide access to water-resources data collected at approximately 1.9 million sites in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Online access to this data is organized around the categories listed at the bottom.
The USGS investigates the occurrence, quantity, quality...
Real-Time Data Links
The U.S. Caribbean-Florida Water Science Center operates and maintains approximately 929 real-time sites in Florida, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands which provide long-term, accurate, and unbiased information that meets the needs of many diverse users. The USGS collects the streamflow data needed by Federal, State, and local agencies for planning and operating water-resources projects and...
Coral Reef Facts
These facts about coral reefs are presented in conjunction with the USGS Coral Reef Project.
Toro Negro, Puerto Rico
Recent Conditions
Instruments are used to monitor and detect changes in local conditions, including:
Utuado, Puerto Rico
Recent Conditions
Instruments are used to monitor and detect changes in local conditions, including:
Mineral Resource Assessment of U.S. Territories of the Caribbean Basin Archipelago including Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and Adjacent Areas
Project objectives are to develop a modern probabilistic quantitative mineral resource assessment of Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and adjacent geologically similar areas that examines the potential for minerals-based economic development and trade within the region.
Bird Banding Laboratory
The Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL) is an integrated scientific program established in 1920 supporting the collection, archiving, management and dissemination of information from banded and marked birds in North America. This information is used to monitor the status and trends of resident and migratory bird populations. Because birds are good indicators of the health of the environment, the...
Biology, Impacts and Control of Invasive Reptiles
Invasive species are considered to be second only to habitat degradation in terms of negative impacts on the Earth’s ecosystems, and our scientists make up a significant proportion of the global expertise in the rapidly-growing problem of invasive reptiles.
Drought Conditions in Puerto Rico
A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions that results in water-related problems. When rainfall is less than normal for several weeks, months, or years, the flow of streams and rivers declines, water levels in lakes and reservoirs fall, and the depth to water in wells increases. If...
HDgov: Multi-agency Website for Human Dimensions of Natural Resources
HDgov is an interactive and mobile-responsive online portal to interagency, academic, and non-government resources focused on the human dimensions of natural resource management. The web portal provides easy access to tools, publications, data, and methods that help ensure that the people side of natural resources is considered throughout the entire natural resource management process. The...
National Park Service Visitor Spending Effects
The National Park Service (NPS) manages the Nation’s most iconic destinations that attract millions of visitors from across the Nation and around the world. Trip-related spending by NPS visitors generates and supports a considerable amount of economic activity within park gateway communities. USGS economists collaborate with the National Park Service social science program to estimate NPS...
Estimated water use in Puerto Rico, 2000
Water-use data were compiled for the 78 municipios of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico for 2000. Five offstream categories were considered: public-supply water withdrawals, domestic self-supplied water use, industrial self-supplied withdrawals, crop irrigation water use, and thermoelectric power fresh water use. Two additional categories also were...
Molina-Rivera, Wanda L. Map showing landslide susceptibility in the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico
The risk of landslides during intense or prolonged rainfall is high in steeply sloping areas such as the municipality of Ponce, where 56 percent of the 301-square-kilometer municipality has slopes 10 degrees or greater. These are areas where the possibility of landsliding increases when triggering conditions such as heavy rainfall or excavation...
Larsen, Matthew C.; Santiago, Marilyn; Jibson, Randall W.; Questell, Eduardo
New seafloor map of the Puerto Rico Trench helps assess earthquake and tsunami hazards
The Puerto Rico Trench, the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean, is located where the North American (NOAM) plate is subducting under the Caribbean plate (Figure l). The trench region may pose significant seismic and tsunami hazards to Puerto Rico and the U.S.Virgin Islands, where 4 million U.S. citizens reside. Widespread damage in Puerto Rico and...
ten Brink, Uri S.; Danforth, William; Polloni, Christopher; Andrews, Brian D.; Llanes Estrada, Pilar; Smith, Shepard; Parker, Eugene; Uozumi, Toshihiko Stress interaction between subduction earthquakes and forearc strike-slip faults: Modeling and application to the northern Caribbean plate boundary
Strike-slip faults in the forearc region of a subduction zone often present significant seismic hazard because of their proximity to population centers. We explore the interaction between thrust events on the subduction interface and strike-slip faults within the forearc region using three-dimensional models of static Coulomb stress change. Model...
ten Brink, Uri S.; Lin, J. Documentation for 2003 USGS Seismic Hazard Maps for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands
Mueller, C.S.; Frankel, A.D.; Petersen, M.D.; Leyendecker, E.V.
Geology and hydrogeology of the Caribbean islands aquifer system of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands
Poorly lithified to unconsolidated carbonate and clastic sedimentary rocks of Tertiary (Oligocene to Pliocene) and Quaternary (Pleistocene to Holocene) age compose the South Coast aquifer and the North Coast limestone aquifer system of Puerto Rico; poorly lithified to unlithified carbonate rocks of late Tertiary (early Miocene to Pliocene) age...
Renken, Robert A.; Ward, W. C.; Gill, I.P.; Gómez-Gómez, Fernando; Rodríguez-Martínez, Jesús
Earthquakes and tsunamis in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands
Many earthquakes and tsunamis have occurred in the northeastern Caribbean, where the movements of the Earth's surface plates are rapid and complicated. Future such events pose serious hazards to the 3.7 million people who live in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Nealon, J.W.; Dillon, William P. Map Showing Susceptibility to Earthquake-Induced Landsliding, San Juan Metropolitan Area, Puerto Rico
Analysis of slope angle and rock type using a geographic information system indicates that about 68 percent of the San Juan metropolitan area has low to no susceptibility to earthquake-induced landslides. This is at least partly due to the fact that 45 percent of the San Juan metropolitan area is constructed on slopes of 3 degrees or less, which...
Santiago, Marilyn; Larsen, Matthew C.
Quality-assurance plan for water-use program activities of the Caribbean District
Molina-Rivera, W. L.
Accuracy of data for selected categories compiled in the Puerto Rico Water-Use Information Program
Molina-Rivera, Wanda L.
Ground-water use of the principal aquifers in Puerto Rico during calendar year 1990
Molina-Rivera, Wanda L.
Programa de Informacion de Uso de Agua en Puerto Rico:Uso de Abastos de Agua Publicos y Disposicion de Aguas Usadas Durante el Ano de 1990
Molina-Rivera, Wanda L.
Puerto Rico 2020 — Temporary Seismic Stations
Dr. Elizabeth Vanacore talks about the installation of temporary seismic stations in southwest Puerto Rico.
Analyzing Earthquake Data in Puerto Rico
USGS scientists Thomas L. Pratt and Alena L. Leads, along with Dr. Elizabeth Vanacore, associate research professor at University of Puerto Rico, analyze data in earthquake monitoring and recording equipment amid aftershocks across the island's southern coast.
Installing a temporary seismometer
Photo (L-R) Jose Cancel of Puerto Rico Seismic Network (PRSN), Alena Leeds of USGS and Javier Santiago of PRSN install a temporary seismometer at Sabana Yeguas in southwestern Puerto Rico on Jan. 10, 2020.
Puerto Rico Coral Reefs and Coastal Hazard Risk Reduction
Rigorously Valuing the Role of Puerto Rico’s Coral Reefs in Coastal Hazard Risk Reduction
Estimated Annual Benefits
Maps of Puerto Rico showing the distribution of the value of averted direct building damages, indirect economic activity losses, and population annually protected from flooding by coral reefs. Results at 10 m2 resolution are
...
Stream gaging in Puerto Rico after Tropical Storm Karen: tethered ADCP
Stream gaging in Puerto Rico after Tropical Storm Karen: tethered ADCP – A tethered acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) is pulled through a cross section of Rio de La Plata near Toa Alta, Puerto Rico, September 25, 2019. Hydrologic technicians with the Caribbean-Florida Water Science Center visited multiple USGS stream gage sites to make high flow
...
Stream gaging in Puerto Rico after Tropical Storm Karen: computer
Stream gaging in Puerto Rico after Tropical Storm Karen: computer – Gage height and precipitation data recorded by sensors and measured manually are logged into an electronic notebook, September 25.
Stream gaging in PR after Tropical Storm Karen: Crest Stage Gage
Stream gaging in Puerto Rico after Tropical Storm Karen: Crest Stage Gage – The distance of a cork line from a known gage height is measured September 25. The cork line was left on a crest stage gage after a high flow event.
Stream gaging in Puerto Rico after Tropical Storm Karen: Gage house
Stream gaging in Puerto Rico after Tropical Storm Karen: Gage house – Manuel Rosario, with the Caribbean-Florida Water Science Center, checks the sensors in the gage house September 25.
Stream gaging in PR after Tropical Storm Karen: computing gage height
Stream gaging in Puerto Rico after Tropical Storm Karen: computing gage height – Manual Rosario does some math required to compute the gage height September 25.
Stream gaging in PR after Tropical Storm Karen: recording gage height
Stream gaging in Puerto Rico after Tropical Storm Karen: recording gage height – A ding-wop, a weight attached to measuring devices, was used to measure the gage height, September 25.
Stream gaging in PR after Tropical Storm Karen: staging measurement
Stream gaging in Puerto Rico after Tropical Storm Karen: staging the measurement – Manuel Rosario, with the Caribbean-Florida Water Science Center, stages an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) to measure high flow September 25.
Stream gaging in PR after Tropical Storm Karen: downstream control
Stream gaging in Puerto Rico after Tropical Storm Karen: downstream control – The pool pictured is almost twice it’s normal size and depth after Tropical Storm Karen passed the island, September 25.
Geologists have discovered evidence that unusual seas detached living corals from a Caribbean reef and scattered them far inland, as boulders, during the last centuries before Columbus arrived. The new findings will reinforce precautions against coastal hazards, Caribbean tsunami specialists said.
“From the mountains to the coast, the southeastern U.S. contains ecosystems that harbor incredible biodiversity. Many of those ecosystems are already highly at risk from urbanization and other human land-use change. Identifying the ecosystems at risk from climate change will help inform conservation and management to ensure we don’t lose that biodiversity.” (Jennifer Constanza, report author)
New USGS models help predict storm effects on beaches
As the 2016 hurricane season opens, weather forecasters, emergency managers and coastal residents have access to tools developed by the U.S. Geological Survey that predict, more precisely than ever, where beach erosion and beachfront flooding will take place during hurricanes and other storms.
First-of-its-kind survey shows that algal toxins are found nationwide
A newly published, three-volume “Remote Sensing Handbook” is a comprehensive coverage of all remote sensing topics written by over 300 leading global experts.
Islands used by tropical seabirds are highly vulnerable to sea level rise according to a new study released today.
MENLO PARK, Calif.— Smartphones and other personal electronic devices could, in regions where they are in widespread use, function as early warning systems for large earthquakes according to newly reported research.
MENLO PARK, California — Los teléfonos móviles y otros dispositivos electrónicos personales podrían ayudar en las regiones donde se encuentran en uso generalizado, y pueden funcionar como sistemas de alerta para terremotos mayor según la nueva investigación científica recien publicada.
Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced today that Interior’s Southeast Climate Science Center is awarding nearly $150,000 to its host university and other partners for research to guide managers of parks, refuges and other cultural and natural resources in planning how to help species and ecosystems adapt to climate change.
As part of the continued US Topo maps revision and improvement cycle, the USGS will be including mountain bike trails to upcoming quadrangles on a state-aligned basis.
June and July rainfall deficits continue to point toward abnormally dry to moderate drought conditions in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Desde agosto de 2013, cada uno de los 50 estados se han encontrado disponible para editarse dentro del USGS (“United States Geological Survey”, por su nombre en inglés) The National Map Corps (Cuerpo de El Mapa Nacional o “TNM Corps” por sus siglas en inglés), a través del proyecto Voluntario de Información Geográfica.
Locations
Caribbean-Florida Water Science Center - Puerto Rico Office
Phone: (787) 749-7400
Fax: (787) 749-7401