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See While there click on the Maps tab for useful graphics that should be helpful for understanding the hazard and damage beyond the technical summary On the Maps page look at the following: Did You Feel It? PAGER Population Faults, previous earthquakes and earthquake hazard risk before this event are also shown on other maps. Maps are generated quickly and checked by USGS scientists regularly. Maps are thus available rapidly to help with response. Tectonic Summary from USGS 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-Plaintain 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-Plaintain Garden fault system. This fault system accommodates about 7 mm/y, nearly half the overall motion between the Caribbean plate and North America plate.
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