The
devastating earthquake that rocked Haiti in January was unleashed by a
previously undetected fault line - not the well-known one scientists
initially blamed, according to an analysis of new data.
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It's unclear how dangerous the new, unmapped fault might be or how
its discovery changes the overall earthquake hazard risk for Haiti, said
Eric Calais, a professor of geophysics at Purdue University in West
Lafayette, Ind.
He said the analysis shows
that most, if not all, of the geologic movement that caused January's
magnitude-7.0 earthquake occurred along the newly uncovered fault, not
the well-documented Enriquillo fault.
Calais,
who presented the findings this week at a scientific conference in
Brazil, said they suggest Haiti's seismic zone is far more complex than
scientists had anticipated. But the new fault's profile, including the
possibility that it merges with the Enriquillo fault at some depth,
won't be known until scientists intensively study the region.
"If
there are other faults capable of producing earthquakes besides the
Enriquillo and this new one we need to know about them. We need to go
after them," he said from Brazil by telephone.
Calais
said that at the time of the quake, Haiti had no seismic stations.
Researchers who flocked to the Caribbean nation have since installed
about 10 stations to monitor the earth's movement.
Ross
Stein, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park,
Calif., said Calais' findings were fascinating and raise many questions
about the complexity of Haiti's faults and what actually occurred during
January's quake. But he said the discovery is not surprising, given the
many unknowns about earthquakes.
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SOURCE: AJC
