Landslides erupt after Haiti's deadly earthquake

Landslides erupt after Haiti’s deadly earthquake Today’s Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory shows landslides erupting throughout the Pic Macaya National Park in southwestern Haiti after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck the island on August 14, 2021.

The epicenter of the earthquake centered about 60 miles west of Haitian capital of Port-Au-Prince, which was devastated by an earthquake in 2010.

According to NASA, both earthquakes occurred along the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault, an area where two tectonic plates grind against each other.

The U.S. Geological Survey reports that the most recent earthquake in Haiti exposed more than one million people to very strong to severe shaking. Thousands of people were injured, and the death toll continues to rise. At this point, there are more than 1,400 confirmed deaths. 

The situation looks even more dire for Haiti as tropical depression Grace is predicted to dump up to 10 inches of rain on the areas hit hardest by the earthquake.

“Some hillslopes that have been destabilized by the earthquake but did not become landslides may be pushed past the limit of stability by the rain, leading to further landslides,” said Robert Emberson, a landslide expert with NASA’s Earth Applied Sciences Disasters Program. 

“Debris and rock already mobilized by the earthquake may be transported by flash flooding as devastating debris flows. The material is mostly at the base of hills currently, but rivers quickly filled by rain could push that downstream and cause severe impacts to communities living farther from the location of the landslides.”

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory 

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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer