Geo-technical aspects of the Haitian earthquake

I was getting a lot of inquiries about the various technical aspects of the earthquake that devastated Haiti, so I emailed my neighbor who is a geologist with a background in seismology. Here is her reply:

“This little request of yours could turn into a major research project, Cindy.  Try these links.  They’re a little more technical than what you generally find in the newspapers.”

Hmmmm.

Well, here are some cool links for the more scientific of my readers:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/poster/2010/20100112.jpg

http://www.iris.edu/hq/files/programs/education_and_outreach/retm/tm_100112_haiti/haiti_flash.swf

http://www.gdacs.org/reports.asp?eventType=EQ&ID=73957&system=asgard&location=HTI&alertlevel=Orange&glide_no

http://mceer.buffalo.edu/infoservice/disasters/Haiti-Earthquake-2010.asp

http://www.jsg.utexas.edu/news/rels/011310.html

This is pretty interesting, considering how relatively young the science of earthquake forecasting is:

In 2008, Paul Mann, Eric Calais and colleagues presented a paper at the Caribbean Conference and David Manaker, Eric Calais and colleagues published a journal article both forecasting a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in the area of Haiti, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.  The forecast was based on an integration of geologic information on the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone with GPS data collected in the region.