Haiti Earthquake

A 7.3 earthquake has hit 10 miles from Haiti capital, and tsunami warnings have been issued. Death tolls expected to be in the 1000’s. 3 million affected, mostly surrounding Port Au Prince. President Obama is supposed to speak on the earthquake. What a difference in disaster response (or more like a lack of denial) than the last 8 years! Meanwhile, Pat Robertson continues to show his idiocy: link.

Communications are down all over, (update: skype video and satellite / cell pictures coming in) so there are no images, pictures or confirmations about damage yet, aside from a major hospitals ccollapse, but there are expectations of ”substantial damage and casualties.”…

Earthquake Details

Magnitude	7.0
Date-Time	
    * Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 21:53:09 UTC
    * Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 04:53:09 PM at epicenter
    * Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location	18.451°N, 72.445°W
Depth	10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program
Region	HAITI REGION
Distances	15 km (10 miles) SW of PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti
140 km (90 miles) E of Les Cayes, Haiti
145 km (90 miles) WNW of Barahona, Dominican Republic
1140 km (710 miles) SE of Miami, Florida
Location Uncertainty : horizontal +/- 8.3 km (5.2 miles);
depth fixed by location program
Parameters: NST=103, Nph=103, Dmin=365.7 km, 
Rmss=1.14 sec, Gp= 94°,
M-type=teleseismic moment magnitude (Mw)

source: usgs

The quake is along the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault system, and usgs is calling it a “left-lateral strike slip faulting on the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault system”. Almost half of the plate motion occurs on this fault line, between the Caribbean plate and North America plate.

Further news and detail links:
nyt, bbc

Also, there have been a few aftershocks already, greater than magnitude 5:

M 5.1, Haiti region
January 12, 2010 23:12:04 GMT

M 5.5, Haiti region
January 12, 2010 22:12:05 GMT

M 5.9, Haiti region
January 12, 2010 22:00:42 GMT

M 4.7 2010/01/13 12:41:45
HAITI REGION

M 4.5 2010/01/13 12:28:26
HAITI REGION