Earthquakes: Disaster mitigation

Will Haiti trigger more efforts in disaster mitigation?



Cartography: Nordpil

You are probably sick and tired of earthquakes by now. :-) I am not. Because earthquakes will not stop happening just because we move on to next hot thing in media. And as you can see from the map above, we are more vulnerable than ever since we urbanize in faster and faster pace.

Haiti Special and Earthquake Week-end

Stellare's Haiti Special and Earthquake Week-end




The Haiti earthquake is a disaster, there is no doubt about that. Unfortunately it seems like the relief is partly a disaster too, judging from the evidence of human greed surfacing in the wake of the joint global efforts to help Haiti.

This is not what Stellare's Haiti special is about. Except for a few cats and cars Stellare is all about science. And it is the science behind the Haiti earthquake that will be covered in this week-end special.

Natural hazards is one of my fields of expertise. I was a co-convener at the American Geophysical Union 2009, at the Natural hazard section. My recent scientific work includes the development of real-time GPS for early warning systems. I'm up to date on the state-of-the-art technologies developed for natural hazards early warning systems.

As a volunteer and idealist (I do this is my spare time), I am a producer and reporter for Astrocast.TV. This channel for astronomy and space news is a non-profit endeavour and rely on contributions from people like me. The crew there is nevertheless top notch professional led by former CNN director Richard Mathews.

Norwegians (me) are direct. This Earthquake Week-end is created to promote the great work of Astrocast.TV and I bluntly ask for your support to spread the word. In return you learn more about science and of course in good ol' Stellare style, you can enjoy plenty of illustrations.

By helping me you help mitigate future disasters. Public knowledge is one element in preventing natural hazards to become disasters of the dimension we witness in Haiti. Based on direct contact with leading experts, Astrocast.TV educates and entertains and thus contributes to increase the public (you) knowledge.



Stellare's A Green Space - A Green Earth (you can find all episodes of my segment here. Haiti on top)
Presentation of The Science Behind the Haiti Earthquake (directly from the horse's mouth interviews with links to the leading expert's websites and articles)

I need you to spread these links in your network and create as much fuzz as ever possible. I will be utterly grateful if you also provide me with feedback (bentebye@astrocast.tv), both on the Haiti show and ideas for future shows.

Thanks! Love you! Peace!

Stellare

PS Link love will get link love in return :-)

Thanks to BestOfStumbleUpon!

Haiti Post Quake

Haiti Post Quake



Credit: NASA/JPL

Here you see how Haiti looks from the air after the Haiti earthquake. The epicenter at the end of the fault (black arrow). And the capital Port-of-Prince (yellow arrow).





"This image will be combined with other images of the same area to be acquired later this month and in the future in order to measure the motion of Earth's surface during the time between images using a technique called interferometry. The interferometric measurements will allow scientists to study the pressures building up and being released on the fault at depth."

Haiti in Red

Haiti in Red



Credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

With the help of satellite images before and after we can identify wound in the soil.

"Tiny dots of white against the plant-covered landscape (red in this image) are possible landslides, a common occurrence in mountainous terrain after large earthquakes. The possible landslides were identified by carefully comparing the new image with an image acquired one year ago.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, is silver in the false-color image. The rivers are pale blue, while the ocean is dark blue. Exposed soil is white."

The Science Behind The Haiti Earthquake

The Science Behind The Haiti Earthquake



Here you see a map of all the tectonic plate boundaries on this planet. In Haiti, we find the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault (part of tectonic boundary) and the earthquake took place very close to the Haitian capital Port-of-Prince.

I had the honor of talking with some of the best experts on the Enriquillo fault as well as other leading scientists. This is the first time I do interviews with people, and it made me almost feel like a journalist. Funny, since the executive producer worked for years at CNN. That's right! I'm lucky to work with the best of the best. :-)

My video made it to the front page of The Global Geodetic Observing System. :-)

Read more and watch the video The Science Behind The Haiti Earthquake

Geodesists in Haiti

Geodesists in Haiti



The earthquake, and particularly the aftermath of the earthquake, in Haiti is a terrible disaster. From a scientific point of view (leave out the human in the scientists) the Haitian earthquake is an excellent and unique opportunity to study our planet up close. Geodesists are now on their way to Port-au-Prince with their GPS equipment. Measuring the change in the shape of the Earth, or rather how much did the two tectonic plates (the Caribbean and North American one that is) move since the main shock, and aftershocks.

I will tell you later why I am DEAD INTERESTED IN THIS PARTICULAR JOURNEY. Help me cross your fingers for getting the geodesist from Santo Domingo to Port-au-Prince, will ya! :-)

Oh! This is geodesy.