Hot News Today

According to news reports the main island of Haiti has suffered damage due to disasters today’s 7.0 earthquake that big hit at 4:53 PM, followed by a series of strong aftershocks. In 1999, a conference was held in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, where the research was presented regarding the earthquake potential in areas where Haiti and the scientists concluded that this area too late to Haiti earthquake that big would attack without warning.

The following is a summary of the conference and the findings: In any event, the data indicate that the dynamics of plate boundary is significant and that the two major fault across the island, one to the north and the other in the south – which runs the entire peninsula of Haiti – both are considered quite dangerous because time elapsed since the last major earthquake. The Septentrional fault (north of the system) is proportional to the San Andreas Fault system in California and has not released the energy in more than 800 years which means about 4-8 meters from the left-lateral slip is accumulated and must be released, can register a 8.0 or higher on the Richter Scale (without warning). Soil conditions on the island has proved a severe withdrawal of a major threat to infrastructure such as dams, bridges and highways and especially in the watershed Artibonito Haitian-Dominican border.

The January 12, 2010, earthquake struck Haiti at the border area that separates the Caribbean plate and the North American plate. This plate boundary is dominated by left-lateral strike slip motion and compression, and accommodate about 20 mm / y slip, with the plate moving eastward with respect to the Caribbean North American plate. Haiti occupies the western part of Hispaniola island, one of the Greater Antilles islands, located between Puerto Rico and Cuba. At the longitude of the January 12 earthquake, the movement between the Caribbean and North American plates is partitioned between the two east-west trend, strike-slip fault system – the system error Septentrional in northern Haiti and Enriquillo Garden Plaintain-error system in southern Haiti. Location and earthquake focal mechanisms are consistent with the incident has occurred as the attack left lateral slip faulting in the Garden Enriquillo-Plaintain system error. This fault system holds about 7 mm / y, nearly half of the total movement between the Caribbean plate and the North American plate.

4 Responses to “Haiti Earthquake Update”