The earthquake that devastated Haiti in January increased stresses on nearby faults, potentially increasing the likelihood of another major temblor in the islands, scientists have found.
Jian Lin, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, was studying a fault system on the island of Hispaniola (home to both Haiti in the west and the Dominican Republic in the east), when the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that destroyed much of Port-au-Prince struck on Jan. 12.
Lin and his colleagues, who had been measuring the stresses on fault systems in the area, were well aware of the potential for a major earthquake in Haiti.
That stress can build up to the point where it overwhelms the grip of the plates against each other and the fault snaps, shifting the surrounding earth with potentially deadly consequences.
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