A new fault has been discovered in the Kingston Harbour, heightening fears that the city could be shaken by another major earthquake.

Programme manager at the University of Austin in Texas Dr Katherine Ellins, who made the disclosure during an American Chamber of Commerce breakfast forum at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston on Wednesday, said the new fault might be an extension of the Caymanas system and connects with the Plantain Garden fault zone in St Thomas that stretches to Hispaniola.

"We think that this is an active fault, but to confirm we need to take sediments core from around and in the harbour," she told the Observer.

Kingston, she emphasised, is in a vulnerable area hence the need for the Jamaican authorities to put measures in place to address an earthquake management programme.

But Dr Ellins, a geologist, was particularly concerned about the Plantain Garden fault line, which she said also passes through the Blue Mountains.

She said the line appears to get "stuck" when it passes the Blue Mountain, which either means that there is no slip occurring, is occurring with much frequency, or that the slip is locked.

"Earthquakes happens all the time, hundreds of them are occurring all the time but when you have something that stuck you might have a bigger event than if you had a slip occurring often along the fault system," she said.

In addition, she said an earthquake might be "brewing" in Long Mountain as the earth under the surface of that area was lifting as a result of plate tectonic actions and could also result in a major tremor.

She also reiterated that Jamaica was still at risk of a tsunami, but said that more studies needed to be done on that issue.

The aim of Wednesday's breakfast forum was to bring together stakeholders to discuss Jamaica's earthquake risks and the country's capacity to cope in the event of a major tremor.

Ronald Jackson, director general of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, said the agency was in the process of establishing a national search-and-rescue advisory committee in an effort to better respond to disasters.

However, he said that first response units such as the fire department, hospitals and emergency shelters needed more funds to respond more "efficiently and effectively" to disasters.

According to the Earthquake Unit at the University of West Indies, about 200 earthquakes occur in and around Jamaica per year, most of which are minor, having magnitudes less than 4.0.

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