Il 12 Gennaio un terremoto ha devastato la capitale di Haiti, Port-au-Prince. Migliaia di persone sono morte o disperse.
Medici Senza Frontiere lancia un appello straordinario di raccolta fondi per le sue attività a Haiti: www.medicisenzafrontiere.it
What happened underground
The fault in the Earth’s crust that is responsible for the Haitian earthquake had been dormant for 250 years. During that time, massive amounts of pressure built up. Tuesday afternoon, that pressure released.
Haiti is on top of the Caribbean plate. USA Geology Professor Dr. Doug Haywick said this little slice of Earth’s crust is sitting in a bad position. “The Caribbean plate is suffering from this type of relationship on all sides (being smashed by several other plates at the same time),” Dr. Haywick said. “It’s being squeezed on all sides.”
A fault in the Caribbean plate slipped Tuesday afternoon, releasing centuries of pressure.
“We haven’t had a record of geologic activity here for 250 years,” Dr. Haywick told us. “250 years of pent up force. When it let go, it let go.” The Haitian capital of Port Au Prince was right above all that deadly force. “There are two strikes that are going to make this potentially one of the most devastating quakes we’re going to see,” Haywick said. “Very shallow, only about five miles down. Very close to a city, only about 10 miles south of the city and this city does not have good building standards.”
The quake sent shock waves through solid earth, making it roll like a violent ocean.
“When you start getting this type of differential movement, (Haywick moves his arms up and down in a see-sawing motion) that’s the worse thing that can happen in any type of earthquake. Because when this happens, your roof is no longer being held up and the houses will literally do this (collapse).”
That is why the destruction from this earthquake is so severe.
[fonte: www.fox10tv.com]