And for the translation:
One of the questions often asked - and rightly - about the January 12, 2010 earthquake is whether its occurrence now allows us to âsleep soundlyâ for a period of time. Indeed, if an earthquake releases the elastic energy that accumulates in the vicinity of a fault, then one might think that it takes tens of years to accumulate this âlostâ energy again. Meanwhile, are we safe?
This simple reasoning is not entirely correct, however. Indeed, the faults of the Southern Peninsula of Haiti - those which cross it and those which mark it out at sea to the south and especially to the north - represent several hundred kilometers of potential rupture. However, only 20 kilometers broke on January 12, 2010 - so there are still significant fault lengths which still have the capacity to generate earthquakes of magnitude 7 or greater today. In other words, the earthquake of January 12, 2010 was of a relatively moderate magnitude, insufficient to release the elastic energy accumulated since the 18th century on all of the faults of the Southern Peninsula.
Furthermore, the fault responsible for the earthquake of January 12, 2010 was not the well-known one in the Southern Peninsula (also known as Enriquillo), but a hitherto unknown fault, the LĂ©ogĂąne fault. It is common for an earthquake to occur on a âsecondaryâ fault such as the LĂ©ogĂąne one. A good example of this is the Loma Prieta earthquake which struck southern San Francisco in 1989 and whose source was a fault close to - but different - from the great San AndrĂ©as fault which nevertheless marks the border between the large Pacific and Pacific tectonic plates. North America.
Finally, even if we talk a lot about the fault of the Southern Peninsula (or Enriquillo) because it appears clearly in the topography from Tiburon in the west to Pétionville in the east, many others faults have been identified with proven seismic potential. This is the case, for example, with the Trois Baies fault, which is located at sea off Petit Goave. Other submarine faults are known to run along the northern coast of the Southern Peninsula. Ongoing research aims to determine their ability to generate future earthquakes
We therefore retain that many faults capable of generating earthquakes equivalent to that of January 12, 2010 exist in the south of the country. The Southern Peninsula (or Enriquillo) fault is a serious candidate for future earthquakes - perhaps a âbig oneâ - but other smaller ones exist which are also capable of large earthquakes. â