Events leading to the Haitian Earthquake research

[JonathanBelles]

Hello Everyone!!

As of today I am beginning research on the events leading up to the the Haitian Earthquake. I am specifically going to be looking at the hurricanes that impacted Haiti in 2008 (and secondarily 2004 & 2009). I will be looking at the deforestation of Haiti, as well as the forecasts of an Earthquake. I will be looking at the tectonic plates in the area, as well as the different types of earthquakes. I will also be taking a look to see what if any the every day climatology plays into every day life.

I will be going through the Haitian EQ thread, as well as the rest of the internet as a starting point. I am making a trip to the library tomorrow to dig up what I can find. If anyone lives in Hispaniola (The DR or Haiti), or in the surrounding areas, and have been impacted by the quake, I would love to talk to you! Also if you have been to Haiti in recent years (in the last 5-7 years), I would love to hear your observations.

I am looking very much forward to researching all of this. I hope to have preliminary research done by March 18th, but I will continue this project after the end of the semester and when I am out of school for the summer.

Thanks!
--Jonathan

[brunota2003]

One thing I am curious in is the earthquakes that occur long distances from the main quake, in areas that are not exactly quake prone (like the ones in Oklahoma after both the Haiti quake and the Chile quake). As well as, prior to the release of a big quake, are there many tiny quakes in the area (more than usual)? Or a sort of "calm before the storm"? one thing that would be interesting is microquakes, as I think when an area "breaks" like those faults do, it doesnt happen all at once, but the sliding speeds up (perhaps increasing the microquakes?) and then BAM, the fault completely shifts

hope my nonscientific (and tired) words make any sense

[JonathanBelles]

One thing I am curious in is the earthquakes that occur long distances from the main quake, in areas that are not exactly quake prone (like the ones in Oklahoma after both the Haiti quake and the Chile quake). As well as, prior to the release of a big quake, are there many tiny quakes in the area (more than usual)? Or a sort of "calm before the storm"? one thing that would be interesting is microquakes, as I think when an area "breaks" like those faults do, it doesnt happen all at once, but the sliding speeds up (perhaps increasing the microquakes?) and then BAM, the fault completely shifts

hope my nonscientific (and tired) words make any sense

I remember reading somewhere that there were no foreshocks before the Haiti quake. I know that foreshocks can occur with certain types of quakes (which I will be researching), but we never know if its a foreshock until a larger one hits. A lot of the time, the tectonic plate slips do occur all at once, but not always. The Oklahoma quakes were only very distantly related to Chile and Haiti, per my knowledge of them and tectonic plates.

[gigabite]

Soil liquefaction didn’t seem to factor in to the damage equation. A good portion of Port of Prince is on sedimentary material, but judging by the early reports of hospital damage a larger percentage of damage was on the rocky sub surface. The use of steel reinforced concrete in commercial building is limited.

http://img67.yfrog.com/img67/5276/haitiearthquake.gif

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_engineering

[Tom8]

Preliminary Coseismic Displacement Field M 8.8 Maule Earthquake, Chile, Feb 27 2010

http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/soest_web/s ... 010_eq.htm

[JonathanBelles]

Are there any articles or studies anywhere that show how much Haiti recovered after the 2008 Hurricanes? After Jeanne?