Display listing of nearby significant earthquakes

Felt Reports

According to official estimates, 222,570 people killed, 300,000 injured, 1.3 million displaced, 97,294 houses destroyed and 188,383 damaged in the Port-au-Prince area and in much of southern Haiti. This includes at least 4 people killed by a local tsunami in the Petit Paradis area near Leogane. Uplift was observed along the coast from Leogane to L'Acul and subsidence was observed along the coast from Grand Trou to Port Royal. Felt (VII) at Port-au-Prince and Petionville and (V) at Vieux Bourg d'Aquin and Port-de-Paix. Felt (V) at La Vega, Moca and San Cristobal; (IV) at Puerto Plata, Santiago, Santo Domingo and Sosua, Dominican Republic. Felt throughout Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Felt (III) at Oranjestad, Aruba; (IV) at Santiago de Cuba and (III) at Guantanamo, Cuba; (II) in the Kingston-Mona area, Jamaica; (III) at Cockburn Harbour and (II) at Cockburn Town, Turks and Caicos Islands; (II) at Caracas, Venezuela. Felt in parts of The Bahamas, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands and as far as southern Florida, northern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela.

Tectonic Summary

The January 12, 2010, Haiti earthquake occurred in the boundary region separating the Caribbean plate and the North America plate. This plate boundary is dominated by left-lateral strike slip motion and compression, and accommodates about 20 mm/y slip, with the Caribbean plate moving eastward with respect to the North America plate.

Haiti occupies the western part of the island of Hispaniola, one of the Greater Antilles islands, situated between Puerto Rico and Cuba. At the longitude of the January 12 earthquake, motion between the Caribbean and North American plates is partitioned between two major east-west trending, strike-slip fault systems -- the Septentrional fault system in northern Haiti and the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system in southern Haiti.

The location and focal mechanism of the earthquake are consistent with the event having occurred as left-lateral strike slip faulting on the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system. This fault system accommodates about 7 mm/y, nearly half the overall motion between the Caribbean plate and North America plate.

The Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system has not produced a major earthquake in recent decades. The EPGFZ is the likely source of historical large earthquakes in 1860, 1770, 1761, 1751, 1684, 1673, and 1618, though none of these has been confirmed in the field as associated with this fault.

(above from reference #1053)

Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said the death toll from the quake was more than 316,000, raising the figures from previous estimates on the first-year anniversary of the disaster. The victims included 58 Canadians. One million people were left homeless, and about 800,000 of them still live in makeshift tent cities. (reference #10014)

The death toll from Haiti's devastating earthquake has topped 222,500, the United Nations said on Tuesday, after President Rene Preval said the number could eventually reach 300,000. Haiti's civil protection agency "estimates that 222,517 people died following the January 12 earthquake, an increase of 5,000 people since the last estimate given a week ago", the UN's humanitarian affairs co-ordination body said. (reference #6792)

April 21 "marked the 100th day since the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti, leaving between 250,000 and 300,000 people dead," said Edmond Mulet, the head of the UN mission in Haiti. Mr Mulet also said that 300,000 people were wounded in the disaster, and more than one million people were left homeless. (reference #7096)

An estimate of US$13.9bn for the same death toll is within statistical error. (reference #8315)

222570 deaths, 3700000 affected, $8 billion damage. (reference #1250)