Scientists aboard the U.S. research vessel Endeavor and collaborators ashore have just arrived on the coast of Haiti to start a 20-day survey of that will assess the history and potential continued threat of earthquakes there.
(Read the full story of the project, involving the Earth Institute and other major institutions.)
Chief scientist Cecilia McHugh of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory will be filing daily updates by email. Excerpts from her initial update upon arrival:
- Arrived at Port-au-Prince Bay on Saturday February 27 at 16:00.
- Upon arrival to Port Au Prince the R/V Endeavor tied up alongside the USNS Cornhusker State, which used their crane to lift the fully loaded 20’ container and 3’x6’x8’ pallets of tarp structures [[containing emergency shelters, donated to the Haitian people]] The cargo will be delivered to Port au Prince.
- Our three Haitian colleagues: S. Symithe, R. Douilly (Universite d’Etat de Haiti) and N. Dieudonne (Bureau of Mines, Haiti) boarded the R/V Endeavor via the Port Au Prince Pilot boat at 19:05.
- Tonight, after testing the equipment, we will conduct a chirp survey [[imaging sediments along the bottom]] along and across the Canal du Sud from water depths of 50 m to ~2000 m. The survey should last through the night.
- After transfers of equipment [[to colleages on land]] we will continue surveying along the eastern and southern coasts of Canal du Sud where the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault is thought to lie offshore and where there were reports of tsunami.
