January 24, 2022 Earthquake: Nippes, Haiti

Reference #13456:

One person killed by a landslide and another by falling debris at Fonds des Negres. At least 52 people injured, 191 houses destroyed and 591 damaged and a road and bridge damaged in Nippes. Asile, GrandʿAnse, Haiti - CDI: 7; Petit Goave, Ouest, Haiti - CDI: 6; Baraderes, GrandʿAnse, Haiti - CDI: 6; Camp-Perrin, Sud, Haiti - CDI: 6; Anse-a-Galets, Ouest, Haiti - CDI: 5

Tectonic Summary

On January 24, 2022, two prominent aftershocks of the August 14, 2021 M7.2 Nippes earthquake occurred roughly 10-15 km east of the mainshock. These January 24, 2022 M5.1 and M5.3 aftershocks occurred in western Haiti as a result of reverse faulting at shallow depths in the vicinity of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone (EPGFZ). The aftershocks occurred roughly 110 km to the west of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. Both earthquakes occurred on reverse faults moderately dipping to either the northeast or the southeast. The January 24 earthquakes are ~60 km west of the epicenter of the January 2010 M7.0 Port-au-Prince earthquake which caused over 200,000 fatalities.

Seismological and geodetic investigations of the August 2021 M7.2 Nippes earthquake indicated that it initiated on a reverse fault and propagated primarily westward and away from Port-au-Prince onto the strike-slip EPGFZ. An outcome of this earthquake was that an approximately 60-75 km seismic gap was formed between the 2010 Port-au-Prince and 2021 Nippes earthquakes. The M5.1 and M5.3 earthquakes on January 24, 2022 occurred within this seismic gap with mechanisms similar to the fault that initiated the August 2021 earthquake.

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.

Reference #13123:

On the morning of 24 January 2022, two aftershocks of magnitude 5.4 and 5.6, respectively, hit the department of Nippes. According to the General Directorate of Civil Protection (DGPC), two people died while 52 others were injured. The housing and education sectors are the most affected. In the Sud and Nippes departments, all schools were forced to close their doors. Some 21 students were admitted to the Sainte Thérèse Hospital in Miragoâne, including 7 who were unconscious and 3 "in a state of shock”. Approximately 190 houses were destroyed and more than 590 were damaged. No further damage to health institutions or any other public buildings has been reported.