In the Aftermath of Haiti's Earthquake: A Discussion of Lessons Learned

Abstract

The 12 January 2010 earthquake in Haiti brought massive devastation to that country (see Figure 1). In this week's issue of Eos, three noted seismologists respond to questions from Eos senior writer Randy Showstack in a news roundtable format.Paul Mann, senior research scientist with the Institute for Geophysics at the University of Texas at Austin, has just returned from Haiti, where he and a colleague worked on a fault rupture survey; they plan to conduct an offshore fault survey soon. Glen Mattioli, professor of geosciences at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, has been part of a team conducting a Global Positioning System (GPS) survey of Haiti to measure ground deformation following the earthquake and to install a number of continuous GPS sites to examine after slip, viscoelastic relaxation, and the time return to interseismic deformation (see Figure 2). Work by Mann, Mattioli, and their colleagues has been supported through a U.S. National Science Foundation Rapid Response Research ( RAPID) proposal grant provided to Purdue University, with Eric Calais serving as principal investigator. Carol Prentice, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Earthquake Hazards Team, has been conducting paleoseismic research on the active faults in the Caribbean region since 1991, including projects on Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and Jamaica.