Blog Week 8

     Haiti's geography and tectonics combined create conditions that are conducive to landslides, which are a type of mass wasting. One of the consequences of the 7.0 earthquake on January 12, 2010, was the summation of landslides up to 4,500, all of them occurring on a 2,150 km land surface. The slope failures which consisted of falling rocks, debris flooded down, and ground slipping, did not get distributed randomly. Instead, they were mostly clustered in areas where the combination of steep mountains, rough terrains along with complex fault activities had taken place. A prime example of this is the region around the intersection of the Léogâne blind thrust fault and the Enriquillo–Plantain Garden Fault. Interestingly enough, in comparison to other earthquakes, the landslides mostly occurred not above the main rupture area (hanging wall) but in high land that was uplifted. This is a clear case where topography and rupture dynamics dominate the distribution of landslides.

    The geologists learned from this seismic activity that different seismic events are associated with distinct landslide patterns. The rupture of 2010, mostly, was "blind" (it did not break the surface) and in this way, it has been less deadly as far as possible landslides are concerned and perhaps less in number as well if compared to other areas experiencing seismic events. The great steepness of the hills in Haiti and the high population density made even the smallest slides very dangerous. Thus, these factors must be considered in future land-use planning and disaster management—not least because heavy rains and earthquakes may create an extremely dangerous landslide risk in the southern region of Haiti.

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0169555X12005478#:~:text=Haiti's%20tropical%20climate%20features%20periodic,2008%20(NOAA%2C%202012).

Image Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/100113-haiti-earthquake-red-cross