August 14, 2021 Earthquake: Haiti

Ref #1053:

Tectonic Summary

The August 14, 2021 M 7.2 Haiti earthquake occurred as the result of oblique reverse motion along the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone, ~125 km west of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. The earthquake occurred at shallow depths on either a reverse fault striking west and dipping to the north with a component of left-lateral slip, or a fault striking southeast and dipping to the southwest with a component of right-lateral slip. At the location of the earthquake, the local plate boundary is dominated by left-lateral strike slip motion and compression. The plate boundary in this location accommodates eastward, left-lateral motion of the Caribbean plate relative to the North America plate. Within this context, the earthquake likely occurred on the east-west striking, north dipping fault plane with a component of left-lateral slip [...]

The location and focal mechanism solutions of the August 2021 earthquake are consistent with the event resulting from primarily reverse faulting with a component of left-lateral strike slip faulting on the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone (EPGFZ). Overall, the EPGFZ accommodates about 7 mm/yr of motion, nearly half the total oblique convergence between the Caribbean and North America plates (~20 mm/yr). Haiti occupies the western part of the island of Hispaniola, one of the Greater Antilles Islands, situated between Puerto Rico and Cuba. At the location of the August 2021 earthquake, motion between the Caribbean and North America plates is partitioned between two major east-west-trending, strike slip fault systems, the Septentrional fault system in northern Haiti and the EPGFZ in southern Haiti.

The EPGFZ had produced a series of major earthquakes in both instrumental and historical time periods. In addition to the 2010 M 7 earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince, the EPGFZ is the likely source of historical large earthquakes in 1860, 1770, and 1751, though none of these has been confirmed in the field as associated with this fault.

Ref #13010, 13011, 13013, 13015, 13016, 13018, 13044:

2248 deceased persons; 12763 persons injured; 329 missing persons as at September 09, 2021. 53,815 houses destroyed and 83,770 houses damaged. An assessment of health structures, carried out by the Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP) in the departments of Grand'Anse , Nippes and South, reports 62 structures seriously or partially damaged. Preliminary results of this assessment show 171 schools completely destroyed

DepartmentInjuredMissingDeadTotalSud9158300185211310Grand'Anse1696292271952Nippes190901672076Total12763329224615338Note: Table above from Ref #13044 and #13030. 2 people were killed in Bassin Bleu, in the North-West, not listed in table (ref #13030)

Ref #13030:

2,248 dead, 12,763 injured, 329 missing, 53,815 houses destroyed and 83,770 others damaged.

Ref #1250:

2,577 dead; 12,763 injured; total damages USD 1.6 billion

Ref #13727:

2,248 dead, 12,763 injured total economic losses USD 1.62 billion