RAPID: Geotechnical Engineering Reconnaissance of the 2010 Haiti Earthquake

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On January 12, 2010 a magnitude Mw 7.0 earthquake struck the Port-au-Prince region of Haiti. The earthquake epicenter is located at 18.457N 72.533W, immediately west of the city of Port-au-Prince, and it is estimated that there was 80 km of fault rupture. The urban damage induced by this event is extreme, and current activities in Haiti are focused on humanitarian efforts. Nonetheless, a strike-slip Mw = 7 event that affects ground near the margins of a bay represents a common earthquake scenario in the US and throughout the world. This earthquake generated soil liquefaction and ground failure along the coastline and severely affected critical facilities, such as the country?s main port. It will also be important to understand how soil and geologic conditions influenced the damage patterns across the City of Port-au-Prince. Field reconnaissance will be focused on capturing perishable data, but we will also add some geotechnical characterization of the soils through: (1) examination of ejecta, (2) hand-held cone penetration tests, and (3) hand-carried equipment to measure shear wave velocities (Vs).The size and impact of this earthquake, as well as its relevance to earthquake design scenarios in the US, warrants the dispatch of a geotechnical reconnaissance team to document the geotechnical and engineering geology/seismology features of this earthquake. This project will fund a reconnaissance team to travel to Haiti to perform these tasks. The team will be coordinated through the Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering Reconnaissance (GEER) Association and will work closely with the reconnaissance teams coordinated by other organizations such as the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) and the ASCE Technical Council on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering (TCLEE). Extreme events engineering is an experience-driven field where immediately following the occurrence of an event (e.g., earthquake, tsunami, hurricane, landslide, or flood), perishable data that can be used to advance our understanding is systematically collected. Field observations are particularly important in the field of geo-engineering, because it is difficult to replicate in the laboratory soil deposits built by nature over thousands of years. Detailed mapping and surveying of damaged areas provides the data for well-documented case histories that drive the development of many of the design procedures used by engineers. Documenting and sharing the key lessons learned from major events around the world contributes significantly to advancing research and practice in engineering. After the Haiti field investigation is complete, observations and findings will be posted on the GEER website (http://www.geerassociation.org/). Images from the various investigators will also be posted on the website and visible through Google Earth