The January 12, 2010, Mw 7.0 earthquake in Haiti: context and mechanism from an integrated geodetic study
Abstract
On January 12, 2010, a Mw7.0 earthquake struck the Port-au-Prince region of Haiti, killing more than 200,000 people and causing an estimated 8 billion in damages, ∼120% of the country's GDP. Understanding this earthquake and its tectonic context is key to future hazard assessment and robust rebuilding in the region. The earthquake was originally thought to have ruptured the Enriquillo fault of the Southern Peninsula of Haiti, one of two main strike-slip faults accommodating the relative motion between the Caribbean and North American plates. Here we provide slip rates on major active faults from the first comprehensive Global Positioning System (GPS) velocity field for Hispaniola. These rates, together with the ∼250 years elapsed since a major event in southern Hispaniola, imply that the Southern Peninsula fault zone was indeed capable of a Mw7.1, consistent with previous estimates. We show that coseismic deformation from GPS and InSAR data is consistent with rupture on an unmapped north-dipping fault, which is subparallel to -- but different from -- the Enriquillo fault. The earthquake involved a combination of left-lateral strike-slip and reverse fault slip, consistent with the transpressional nature of regional interseismic strain accumulation. We will discuss the implications of these findings for the interpretation of the January 12 earthquake and future seismic hazard in the region.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010AGUFM.U11A..01C
- Keywords:
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- 7215 SEISMOLOGY / Earthquake source observations