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Community Geophysical Event Response - Mw=7 Haiti Earthquake 1/12/2010

In response to community requests after the Mw=7 Haiti Earthquake 1/12/2010, UNAVCO has compiled data sets and is preparing campaign GPS and TLS hardware for anticipated deployment to the Haiti region. For up-to-date information about UNAVCO's event response please see our Hazard Reponse. You can link to related News at UNAVCO.

Relevant Data

UNAVCO has GPS data available in the Data Center. All the high rate data can be found at ftp://data-out.unavco.org/pub/highrate/rinex/.

Visit the WInSAR Haiti Supersite.

For more information on accessing data including high rate GPS, SAR data, seismic data from the PBO network, UNAVCO GPS equipment availability, and borehole strainmeter data from the PBO network go to the Event Response Forum.

Tectonic Summary

The USGS has put preliminary results of the January 12, 2010 Mw 7.0 Haiti earthquake (Gavin Hayes, National Earthquake Information Center, USGS, Golden).

The Haiti earthquake of January 12, 2010, occurred in the boundary region separating the Caribbean plate and the North America plate. This plate boundary is dominated by left-lateral strike slip and compression, and accommodates about 20 mm/y slip, with the Caribbean plate moving eastward with respect to the North America plate.

Haiti occupies the western part of the island of Hispaniola, one of the Greater Antilles islands, situated between Puerto Rico and Cuba. At the longitude of the January 12 earthquake, motion between the two Caribbean and North American plates is partitioned between two major east-west trending, strike-slip fault systems -- the Septentrional fault system in northern Haiti and the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault system in southern Haiti.

The location and focal mechanism of the earthquake are consistent with the event having occurred as left-lateral strike slip faulting on the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault system. This fault system accommodates about 7 mm/y, nearly half the overall motion between the Caribbean plate and North America plate.

The Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault system has not produced a major earthquake in recent decades. The EPGFZ is the likely source of historical large earthquakes in 1860, 1770, 1761, 1751, 1684, 1673, and 1618, though none of these has been confirmed in the field as associated with this fault.

Material compiled by UNAVCO Community Scientists

Eric Calais, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Science, Purdue University has provided a compilation of materials relevant to the Haiti earthquake. And a general summary of tectonics in the northwestern Caribbean. Included is a list of published papers on the area.

Roger Bilham, Department of Geosciences, University of Colorado has a summary (User Name: roger, Password: recon) of the 2010 Haiti earthquake with a powerpoint presentation, see Rogers' Earthquakes and Tectonic Plate motions web page for a recent article on the seismic future of cities and a link to the book by Susan Hough and Roger Bilham After the Earth Quakes: Elastic Rebound on an Urban Planet (Oxford University Press, 2006).

Glen Mattioli (University of Arkansas) and Pam Jasma (University of Texas at Arlington) have collaborated on geodetic study of the microplate tectonics of the northeastern Caribbean with a case study of the Puerto Rico-Virgin Islands for educational use.

Louis Obenson, a field engineer from the Haiti Civil Protection configuring a GPS receiver during a 2003 GPS campaign in Haiti run by E. Calais.

Figure 1 - Louis Obenson, a field engineer from the Haiti Civil Protection configuring a GPS receiver during a 2003 GPS campaign in Haiti run by E. Calais. Eric Calais has been recently interviewed by the Associated Press.

GPS station REC2, located at the Recovery Lakes region of the Antarctic Plateau. Solar panels and lead-acid batteries provide power for a majority of the year, with wind power and lithium battery backup to ensure data collection continues through the polar winter. This system uses a super-insulated enclosure to conserve heat, and near real-time data retrieval is obtained via the Iridium system.

Figure 2 - Simulated Coseismic Ground Deformation Haiti - Mw=7.1 - January 12, 2010. Image compliments of Eric Calais- Purdue University - 01/14/2010.

Map showing the permanent sites for which UNAVCO has data. We have downloaded 5 Hz data from the Caribbean Hurricane Prediction Network.

Figure 3 - We have downloaded high rate data from the stations shown (Puerto Rica network(PI: G. Wang), Caribbean Hurricane Prediction Network (PI: J Braun), and the PBO Eastern Region station P780) and have made it available at: ftp://data-out.unavco.org/pub/highrate/rinex/.

Map showing Puerto Rico GPS Network.

Figure 4 - Map showing Puerto Rico GPS Network.

Cross-section of slip distribution. The strike direction of fault plane is indicated by the black arrow and the hypocenter location is denoted by the red star. The slip amplitude are showed in color and motion direction of the hanging wall relative to the footwall is indicated by white arrows. Contours show the rupture initiation time in seconds.

Figure 5 - Cross-section of slip distribution. The strike direction of fault plane is indicated by the black arrow and the hypocenter location is denoted by the red star. The slip amplitude are showed in color and motion direction of the hanging wall relative to the footwall is indicated by white arrows. Contours show the rupture initiation time in seconds.

 

Last modified: 2020-02-06  00:23:18  America/Denver