Friday, February 27, 2015

Earthquake Readiness and Seismicity

Disaster Preparedness - Earthquake Readiness
International effort to reengineer/rebuild Port-au-Prince after 2010

·         A clear strip of land 30-40m wide on two sides of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault
·         Preventing construction on slopes so that buildings do not collapse unto each other
·         Building on solid ground, as wet areas tend to liquefy
·         Steel reinforced concrete rebar/steel-frame construction
·         Predicting an earthquake to give local people a chance to evacuate
·         Awareness/Educational Campaigns
·         Increasing infrastructure, to prevent disruption supplies of water & electricity
          Following Building Codes

See Haiti Prepares   

Seismicity

This video shows the four months before major seismic activity hit Haiti, most of the seismic activity is seen along the Pacific Coast and then came the devastating January 12, 2010 quake.   

"The Earth... moves a lot..... In the space of just a few months, we have experienced deadly earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and Turkey. Yet another quake caused damage in Taiwan. Earthquake scientists do not see a direct link between these quakes, but earthquake activity has increased since the huge Indian Ocean earthquake in 2004 and its resulting tsunami. That has led some scientists to wonder whether big quakes can, in fact, increase seismic activity around the world." npr.org USCS Scientist










Humanitarian Early Warning Service


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3 comments:

  1. CameliaFebruary 27, 2015 at 10:53 PM

    Antonia, you chose such an incredibly "active" country in terms of seismicity, for lack of a better adjective. Haiti has been so much at the fore front of the news after the Jan 12th 2010 earthquake and clearly that made it absolutely necessary for all the measures that you mentioned in your blog entry to be implemented. The 2010 earthquake (M 7) that literally devastated Haiti left such a vivid imprint in my memory and I am sure that of the world and underscored the importance of earthquake preparedness not just in terms of building codes and proper, safer land development but also in terms of creating a highly performing warning system. I know we are not there yet, although Dr. Andrea Donnellan's (the Earthquake Forecaster) work in Southern California looks to be promising in this respect. As I am learning more about earthquakes, I am realizing how important it is for us to come up with a better way of predicting and possibly containing in some ways these natural processes that can be so catastrophic; Haiti is definitely an unfortunate example of how horrific these otherwise natural phenomena can be and the unbearable toll it can take on human life.

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  2. UnknownFebruary 27, 2015 at 11:30 PM

    Prediction would be a marvel and a godsend. I have fear that because of the economic situation in the country that many of the measures may be overlooked because of cost issues. Possibly many lives could be saved if the construction were modernized. I couldn't bear to watch the news and I still remember and see the great loss of life which saddened me so greatly.~

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  3. AnaGGMarch 1, 2015 at 8:20 AM

    You both have great points. Unfortunately, right here, in Los Angeles for example, the codes are not up to standard and a lot of times the reason is people not wanting to spend the money (cities, landlords, etc)...although you saw the link I sent about LA....in general, and in Haiti's case, people do not have the money there so they have to rely on 'outsiders' for that. I remember seeing the images of the destruction afterward but even worse, the secondary hazards: lack of medicine, food, shelter, sickness....that is frequently the real problem in a catastrophe.

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