As doctors try to contain the lethal outbreak of cholera in Haiti, geologists have more bad news for the island nation. The disastrous earthquake that struck in January did not release the stress on the main east-west fault that underlies Haiti, but in fact probably originated from a separate fault line, according to separatestudies out in Nature Geoscience. That means Haiti is in danger of more major earthquakes.
Directly after the earthquake, some geologists said the most likely cause was Haiti's Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault, which has been building up pressure since the mid-1700's. But not so, according to Eric Calais of the U.S. Geological Survey, who now says that an unmapped fault now named Léogâne was probably the source of the January disaster.
At first, scientists focused on the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault on Haiti's southern peninsula -- one of two main faults in the region. But the team said measurements ...
