Author: Kevin Krajick34
-
Initiatives to Help Haiti Recover
A new set of web pages describes the Earth Institute’s wide-ranging involvement in helping bring relief to quake-battered Haiti, as well as plans for long-term recovery, and associated environmental and economic issues. One major program, the Haiti Regeneration Initiative involves the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, Tropical Agriculture…
-
An Underwater Landslide; Then, a Deadly Wave
Scientists have been sailing off the coast of Haiti to assess the recent earthquake there, and the potential for more. The cruise is now complete; here is the final update, from reports by chief scientist Cecilia McHugh of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and others. (Read the full story of the project, involving the Earth Institute and other major institutions.) The great January…
-
Haiti Quake Fault Comes Into Focus
Scientists are sailing off the coast of Haiti to assess the recent earthquake there, and the potential for more. This is the latest update, emailed by chief scientist Cecilia McHugh from the research vessel Endeavor. (Read the full story of the project, involving the Earth Institute and other major institutions.) We had a successful day and were able to map…
-
Shipboard Researchers Image Haiti Earthquake Fault
Scientists are sailing off the coast of Haiti to assess the recent earthquake there, and the potential for more. This is the latest update, emailed by chief scientist Cecilia McHugh from the research vessel Endeavor. (Read the full story of the project, involving the Earth Institute and other major institutions.) Today we surveyed the Baie de Grand Goave, west of…
-
Researchers Probe Bottom Off Port-au-Prince
Scientists are now sailing off the coast of Haiti to assess the recent earthquake there, and the potential for more. This is the latest update, emailed by chief scientist Cecilia McHugh from the research vessel Endeavor. (Read the full story of the project, involving the Earth Institute and other major institutions.) The first part of the science program focused…
-
Earthquake Research Vessel Reaches Haiti Coast
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…
-
Assessing Continuing Quake Risks, by Sea
This week U.S. and Haitian scientists will start a 20-day research cruise off Haiti to address urgent questions about the workings of the great Jan. 12 earthquake, and the possibility of continuing threats. They hope to gather sonar images, sediments and other evidence from the seafloor that might reveal hidden structures, how they have moved,…
-
Haiti: Physics of Quakes Past, and Future
The earthquake that struck Haiti took place along what is called a strike-slip fault—a place where tectonic plates on each side of a fault line are moving horizontally in opposite directions, like hands rubbing together. When these plates lock together, stress builds; eventually they slip; and this produces shaking. This quake was fairly shallow; it…
-
Witnessing the Desperation of the Poor
At the moment the Haiti earthquake struck, two Earth Institute staffers were in Port-au-Prince assessing how to make the country less poor, and less vulnerable to natural disasters. Marc Levy and Alexander Fischer of the Center for International Earth Science Information Network were working with the Haiti Regeneration Initiative, a nascent program to repair Haiti’s…