Haiti Earthquake | February 02, 2010 | 10 comments

Why Haiti Should Move Its Capital

source: http://bit.ly/a4fnox

Image
ras_menelik
The image on Falk Amelung's laptop screen looks like 1960s psychedelia. But the interferogram, a composite radar snapshot of Haiti captured by Japanese satellite before and just after the Jan. 12 earthquake, is a trove of geological information. And much of it has surprised the University of Miami professor of geology and geophysics. "In theory, this should have been an earthquake of simple left-lateral movement along the fault line," says Amelung. Then he points to the kaleidoscopic color contours rippling from the quake's epicenter, west of the capital, Port-au-Prince, which indicate vertical quake movement as well. "It's more than we would have thought to see in this region," he says. "We're puzzling over this."

As a result of that anomaly and others they've seen so far, Amelung and many of his colleagues are urging Haiti's government and international donors to consider relocating the capital, which was largely reduced to rubble by the quake. The most important infrastructure should be rebuilt at a site well away from a fault line that they believe will rupture again within the next generation or two but even closer to Port-au-Prince. "If this were a typical earthquake, the risk of future incidents would decline over the next few months," says Tim Dixon, also a geology and geophysics professor at Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. "The stress would be relieved, and we could all go back to sleep for another 250 years," which is about how long ago Haiti's Enriquillo Fault last convulsed. "But that's not the case here — our findings suggest another shoe has to drop."

That's largely because of the limited length of the fault-line rupture that caused the January earthquake. Amelung and Dixon, working with two other University of Miami geologists, Sang Hoon Hong and Shimon Wdowinski, say the quake exhibited quite a bit of odd behavior. Its rupture, for example, did not reach the earth's surface — unusual for its powerful 7.0 magnitude. But the more important question is why only the western half of the Enriquillo Fault segment that ruptured in 1751 fractured this time. (That half, about 25 miles in length, lies right under the city of Léogâne, the Jan. 12 epicenter, which is about 20 miles west of Port-au-Prince.) As a result, the eastern half of the segment — the one much closer to Port-au-Prince — is subject to that much more stress, which may cause another major quake to come sooner rather than later. "Even if the next earthquake is the same 7.0 magnitude," says Amelung, "it will still be more damaging to Port-au-Prince" than last month's quake was.

Amelung wants to explore how, if at all, the quake's unexpected vertical motion may have affected the January rupture's short length and potent magnitude. But whatever the cause, the scientists say Haiti can escape the devastation of a seismic sequel. Says Dixon: "We feel we have enough knowledge gathered now to recommend that [Haiti] should rebuild critical infrastructure farther to the north, out of harm's way," where the ground often has stable rock instead of the more alluvial soil around Port-au-Prince.


http://bit.ly/a4fnox
  1. groups:
    Community,   News and Politics,   Earth and Science,   Science,   1 more
  2. tags:
  3.     
    |

10 comments // Why Haiti Should Move Its Capital

  • cdetirado
    • 0
      cdetirado  

    • I know that this may sound insensitive but who the hell cares. In about 6 months no one will even be talking about it. To me the cruelest and most hypocritical thing we could do is rebuild Hati. What about the people that you drive by everyday to work that sleep under bridges and are strung out on drugs. We have our priorities all messed up. Why don't we save America and Americans first and let the world step up to the plate, and do there part for a change. Hatians do give a crap about the US only what they can get off us much like Puerto Rico does. We cannot go on rebuilding countries when our own infrastructure needs rebuilding.

    • 2 years ago
  • existentialist
    • 0
      existentialist  
    • cdetirado:

      First off, I am just as insensitive as the next bastard, but I think your logic is wrong. Druggies in the US have a choice on whether they light the pipe up or not. Haitians didn't get a choice before their homes were decimated. Second, many of the homeless people in America are that way by conscious choice; either by some sort of personal philosophical or religious reason,or from, in my opinion, misguided political activism (resistance to the current state of society and the status quo). Most other homeless people are that way by subconscious choice. They believe they cannot get a job or have so thoroughly convinced themselves of their inferiority refuse to seek help. I believe that we should have programs to rehabilitate and/or eliminate the homeless in the US, but this hardly compares to the existential tragedy that is Haiti.

      Even if you don't believe in the shared destiny of mankind and/or recognize the fact that we are interconnected, so that what happens in Haiti affects us, you must realize their are extrinsic rewards gained by the US for helping Haiti. As you come off as a selfish Nationalist, you should realize the resources that Haiti can provide us, the US. Their are large crop lands for sugar, tea, coffee, etc... or these lands could be used for US industries with cheap Haitian labor, and don't forget the rumors of oil. I don't necessarily agree with the above, but it may speak to you, and we both know that the US will expect to be reimbursed for their "compassion."

    • 2 years ago
  • cztheday
    • +1
      cztheday  

    • Yeah, well, given the tectonics and its location in the hurricane zone, it would be better if they could move the whole COUNTRY ia few hundred miles in one direction or another (though that I suppose that WOULD make things a little rough for the Dominican Republic). Doubtless Chavez will "discover" a U.S. weapon capable of moving an entire country during the course of his next fabrication...er...speech.

    • 2 years ago
  • ChunkyCheezes
  • UrbanGypsy
  • mink_Stacktrane
  • futuregen
    • 0
      futuregen  

    • I'm glad to see others are investigating this in addition to Purdue University. My son was harassed and isolated at a week long summer camp there. The camp was recommended by an Italian Catholic whose father works for the nuclear industry in Indiana. That family also set us up to be tortured in Rome in 2002. Purdue University is a branch of the military-industrial complex. I'd like to hear more about the existing military tectonic weapons.

      From article:"...the quake exhibited quite a bit of odd behavior. Its rupture, for example, did not reach the earth's surface — unusual for its powerful 7.0 magnitude. But the more important question is why only the western half of the Enriquillo Fault segment that ruptured in 1751 fractured this time."

      https://engineering.purdue.edu/NE/

      Hopefully someone really has the Hatian population in mind and not just building a military base.

    • 2 years ago
  • ras_menelik
    • 0
      ras_menelik  
    • Image

    • American Red Cross
      redcross.org
      800-HELP-NOW
      Donations can be made online or $10 donations can be made by texting "HAITI" to 90999.

      CARE
      https://my.care.org/
      800-422-7385
      Donations can be made online.

      Catholic Relief Services
      crs.org
      877-HELP-CRS

      World Vision
      worldvision.org
      888-56-CHILD

      YELE Haiti Foundation
      yele.org
      212-352-0552
      Haitian musician Wyclef Jean's foundation is accepting online donations.

      AmeriCares
      americares.org
      800-486-4357

      UNICEF
      unicefusa.org
      800-4-UNICEF

      International Rescue Committee
      theirc.org/crisis-haiti
      877-REFUGEE
      $5 donations can also be made by texting "HAITI" to 25383

      Doctors Without Borders
      doctorswithoutborders.org
      888-392-0392

      Partners in Health
      pih.org
      617-432-5298

      Concern Worldwide US
      concernusa.org
      concernusa.org/haitiappeal
      212-557-8000
      800-59-CONCERN

      Clinton Bush Haiti Fund
      clintonbushhaitifund.org

      Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1953454,00.html#ixzz0eOu2YKfs

    • 2 years ago
  • ras_menelik
    • 0
      ras_menelik  

    • "The stress would be relieved, and we could all go back to sleep for another 250 years," which is about how long ago Haiti's Enriquillo Fault last convulsed. "But that's not the case here — our findings suggest another shoe has to drop."

    • 2 years ago
  • ras_menelik
    • 0
      ras_menelik  
    • Image

    • The earth scientists' case for moving the capital may actually dovetail with the arguments of social scientists. Haiti is the western hemisphere's poorest country, which is a primary reason Port-au-Prince, with some 2 million residents, is one of the world's most densely populated cities. This combination of factors helps explain why as many as 150,000 people were killed in last month's quake. Many development experts believe that the city's population needs to be halved, and the rebuilding process may offer an opportunity to resettle some half a million people outside the metropolis to new or existing communities that offer jobs and infrastructure.

      Moving an entire capital, of course, is another matter, even if the collapse of the National Palace and other key government structures makes it more possible to contemplate. It's hardly unprecedented and could even serve as a driver of development. The earthquake "creates opportunities for development elsewhere in the country," says Jocelyn McCalla, a development adviser to the Haitian government. "Haiti has to be engaged now in a major decentralizing effort." Brazil did just that in the 1950s, when it moved its capital, with all the associated buildings and bureaucracy, from Rio de Janeiro to Brasília, some 600 miles away on the country's relatively unpopulated central plateau. Most Brazilians today agree that the move helped spread political and economic power.

      (See how to help the Haiti earthquake victims.)http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1953454,00.html

      Amelung and Dixon say it behooves Haiti to at least consider relocation scenarios, perhaps moving government, medical and education infrastructure as far north as the port city of St. Marc. Although scientists traditionally take several months to publish such findings in a peer-reviewed journal, the geologists say the urgency of the policy choices facing Haiti right now demanded that they get the word out quickly. Data from the Japanese satellite's synthetic aperture radar imaging are reaching the broader scientific community in a timelier manner, thanks to new digital supersites developed last year by Amelung and other members of the international Group of Earth Observations (GEO), including JAXA, the Japanese space agency. GEO is working to break through the bureaucratic logjams in which such data often become mired.

      The Haiti information, which is also being studied by NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab as well as the U.S. Geological Survey, indicates that "this [tectonic] plate boundary is way more complicated than we previously thought," says Amelung. The Caribbean isn't generally known for seismic catastrophe. But scientists, including Dixon, began seriously scrutinizing the Enriquillo Fault in the 1980s, eventually determining that it was a major quake hazard. Known formally as the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault, it forms a boundary between the North American and Caribbean plates — and a sort of volatile spine running along the southwest peninsula of Hispaniola, the island Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic.

      Port-au-Prince has experienced at least two large aftershocks since Jan. 12. Geologists like Eric Calais of Purdue University are trying to ascertain whether they are a sign of the fault settling or a setup for a bigger earthquake in the near future. Calais told the National Science Foundation last week that he and his team are also "concerned for the Dominican Republic, as our preliminary models show that the continuation of the fault in this area is loaded."

      Whether or not Haiti and its international donors agree to move the capital, the geological findings mean they'll have to give serious attention to proposals on population relocation and to tightening Haiti's abysmally shoddy construction codes, which allowed the quake to wreak greater havoc than it should have. That disaster may have caught authorities unprepared, but they no longer have that excuse.

    • 2 years ago
more from Haiti Earthquake:
from the community

top videos