What Caused The Haiti Earthquake?

The two plates are constantly slowly creeping past each other by about .8 inches a year. The Caribbean plate moves eastward of the North American slab.

Earthquake Causes

The Haiti earthquake happened at the fault that runs right through Haiti located along the boundary between the Caribbean and North American plates. These are described as rocky slabs covering the planet that fit together like giant jigsaw puzzle pieces.

What was felt on January 12, was a release of energy from the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault system. It has been explained as the two sides of the fault moving past each other in an east-west direction causing the huge energy release and the Haiti earthquakes.

The high 7.0 magnitude of the quake surprised scientists, as this system of faults hasn't affected any major tremblor in many decades. This is by far the largest ever quake to hit the area. The last time an earthquake this strong struck Haiti was in the 18th century.

Why Was The Haiti Earthquake So Devastating?

The magnitude certainly plays a role in the amount of damage. However, it should be noted that this earthquake was very shallow, which means it was released very close to the surface, being very characteristic of the violent ground shaking.

In contrast, when an earthquake is very deep, the energy has a chance to be absorbed through the Earth's crust before it reaches the surface and then possibly causes less shaking.

A positive thing about the Haiti earthquake, if there could be anything positive, is that because it was on land, it did not generate a tsunami.

Unofficial reports are suggesting that the shaking lasted from between 35 seconds up to one full minute, which is considered a long time for the ground to shake that violently.

These factors mixed with the knowledge that this very poor nation has no building codes and shoddy infrastructure, this was an expected unfortunate outcome.

TOP of What Caused The Haiti Earthquake
RETURN to Haiti Earthquake
HOME to Helping Children Around The World