The 2010 Haiti earthquake sequence: new insight of the tectonic pattern from aftershocks and marine geophysical data : Haiti-OBS cruise
Abstract
The devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake ruptured only a relatively short segment (~50km) of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault (EPGF) a 600km long strike-slip fault running onland and offshore from Jamaica to Dominican Republic, with apparently no major surface rupture in the epicentral area. Considering the general behavior of such strike-slip fault (i.e. North Anatolian fault, San Andreas fault), we can expect that, following the 2010 earthquake, other large earthquakes will occur in the near future on adjacent segments. To contribute to the multinational scientific effort for a better understanding of the rupture process and the stress relaxation of this earthquake, we organized the Haiti-OBS cruise of the R/V L'Atalante few weeks after the catastrophe (Feb.5 to Feb.15, 2010, from and to Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe). Our goal was 1) to deploy a temporary network of seismologic stations -21 OBS, Ocean Bottom Seismometer, and 4 onland stations- and 2) to survey the detailed sea-floor features in relation with the deformation pattern of the area (multibeam bathymetry and mud-penetrator). We show that the distribution pattern of the aftershocks as well as the compressive surface structures observed in the geology and onshore/offshore morphology of the area are consistent with a deformation model implying a major left-lateral component along the EPGF, and a strong reverse component. The January 12, 2010 mainshock has been shown as very complex. However, in the first order, the mainshock and the distribution of the aftershocks, better localized by our temporary network, can be explained by the interaction between the strike-slip EPGF system and a blind folds-and-thrusts system. Thus, the general geological setting shows a southern extension until the southern part of the Canal du Sud area of the well-known fold and thrust system of the Hispaniola main block.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010AGUFM.U11A..06M
- Keywords:
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- 3045 MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS / Seafloor morphology;
- geology;
- and geophysics;
- 7209 SEISMOLOGY / Earthquake dynamics;
- 8111 TECTONOPHYSICS / Continental tectonics: strike-slip and transform