The Paria cluster is named for the Gulf of Paria between Venezuela and
Trinidad and Tobago. There are many relatively deep events immediately
to the north, associated with the Lesser Antilles subduction zone, but
when they are included in the cluster the lateral heterogeneity in
velocity structure causes location bias. The cluster is comprised of
shallow events (less than 35 km). There are two M6 events in the
cluster, on April 11, 1983 (6.1 Mw) and on June 11, 1986 (6.3 mw). The
distribution of seismic stations for direct calibration is quite good.
All events have depth control from near-source and local distance
stations and, in many cases, good teleseismic depth phase datasets. Most
events are recorded to teleseismic distances; the pattern of teleseismic
P residuals features a remarkable discontinuity near 65°.
