Introduction

The Puerto Rico Strong Motion Program (PRSMP) is a program dedicated to obtain the most reliable and precise strong motion data to mitigate the number of lives and economical losses that will arrive from unavoidable future destructive earthquakes. The Accelerographs are the seismic instrument most used by the program. This is a seismograph, which works at lower frequencies. While the seismograph is capable of recording weak vibrations, as the ocean waves hit the coastline, the Accelerographs will stay "sleeping" during this type of vibration. However, during a strong shaking the trace of the seismograph will be out of scale while the Accelerographs will "wake up" to adequately record the event. High intensity earthquakes have stricken Puerto Rico in the years 1670, 1787, 1867, and 1918. A "Big One" will also hit the island of Puerto Rico one day, and it would be best if everyone is prepared. The Puerto Rico Strong motion program is doing its part to properly record the events that are received. The data will be useful to better understand the earthquake mechanism, to describe the wave's attenuations, to describe the behavior of different soil deposits where the main cities have been established, and to determine the characteristics of the vibrations in order to properly design the structures, among others.