An earthquake of magnitude 7.0 in Richter scale, which lasted for the duration of 30 seconds, hit the Haiti region on January 12, 2010, and claimed an estimated 222,570 deaths. Haiti occupies the west part of the island of Hispaniola, one of the Greater Antilles islands, situated between the Puerto Rico and Cuba. The fault zone is called Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault, runs some 16 kms from Port-au-Prince, and at the intersection of the regions separating the Caribbean plate and North America plate.
According to the estimation of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), several million of earthquakes occur throughout the world each year. Most of the earthquakes either occur in small magnitudes or hit in remote locations, and remain unnoticed. Since the occurrence of main shock of the Haiti earthquake, USGS National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) noticed 59 aftershocks of magnitude 4.5 or greater during January 12, 2010 21.53 UTC to February 23, 2010 17.00 UTC in the region. Sixteen of the aftershocks were 5.0 or greater in magnitude, and largest aftershock of 6.0 magnitude occurred just seven minutes after the main shock.
The main shock of the earth quake did not produce observable surface displacements on the main-strand of the fault system but, caused significant uplift of the Leogane delta. The quake was centred in a mountainous region of the southwest Haiti, which has undergone severe deforestation in past decades. Satellite images reveal that a significant accumulation of eroded materials in the Leogane delta, to the north of the earthquake`s epicentre.
The Haiti earthquake occurred along a vertically moving fault, which support to the idea that the slippage was due to the accumulation of eroded mass from the mountains, over the epicentre of tremor. As the experts believe that the eroded mass was sufficient enough to produce crustal strains, which caused the vertically oriented slippage along a previously unknown fault.
Reference:
Harmon, Katherine. "Haiti Earthquake Disaster Little Surprise to Some Seismologists." Scientific American, 13 Jan. 2010. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/haiti-earthquake-prediction/.
"Magnitude 7.0 - HAITI REGION." USGS. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2010/us2010rja6/#summary.
Pidwirny, Michael. "Earthquake." The Encyclopedia of Earth, 1 May 2014. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/151858/.
"Was the 2010 Haiti Earthquake Triggered by Deforestation and the 2008 Hurricanes?" Climateprogress, 21 Dec. 2010. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2010/12/21/207228/was-the-2010-haiti-earthquake-triggered-by-deforestation-and-the-2008-hurricanes/.
