By Anna Gustafson
Queens College professor Cecilia McHugh led a team of scientists to Haiti last month and their research could give a major boost to the Caribbean nation’s rebuilding efforts by providing insight into when another earthquake could potentially strike.
During a 20-day research cruise that ended March 15, the 17-person group found evidence of tectonic activity around much of Haiti, indicating there is no place to resettle on the island that would serve as a haven from earthquakes and the only safe way to rebuild is to employ earthquake-proof architecture, such as what has been used in Chile, McHugh said.
“We think Haiti’s tectonically active just about everywhere,” said McHugh, a professor of earth and environmental sciences at Queens College. “There needs to be structures built to withstand earthquakes.”
The team, which included graduate students from Queens College and the State University of Haiti, spent their time in the Caribbean on a research boat lent to them by the University of Rhode Island and gathered sediments from various points around the island nation, which they will analyze in the United States with the hope of creating a timeline of earthquakes.
McHugh said the last known earthquake before the Jan. 12 temblor was in the mid-1700s, but little is known about quakes prior to that.
“If we found out how often these earthquakes occurred, we could predict future earthquakes,” said Katie Ryan Mishkin, a Queens College graduate student who traveled with the group to Haiti.
The team, which was able to go to Haiti on a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation, also studied the fault line where the January earthquake took place in an attempt to find the rupture point.
But the team did not locate the rupture point, which would provide evidence that all the tension had been released in the earthquake that devastated the Caribbean nation — a concern for scientists like McHugh, who worry that no such discovery could mean another earthquake could be looming in the near future.
McHugh said she hopes they will be able to return to Haiti to conduct further research.
“At this point, we have more questions than answers,” McHugh said. “Did a rupture happen? Will another earthquake happen soon? What is the risk to Port-au-Prince and other areas of Haiti?”
The trip’s findings have drawn attention from federal officials and the international community.
Kate Moran, a senior analyst at the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy, blogged about McHugh’s trip on the White House’s OSTP Web site and called the research findings “spectacular.” Members of the Queens College and Haitian university group will travel across the world to discuss their data and further research. They expect to go to conferences in Brazil, Austria and spots across the United States.
“It’s motivating as a scientist that you can do something to help and make a difference,” Mishkin said. “Hopefully, this will prevent something devastating from happening in the future.”
Data collections were not the sole focus of the voyage and the 185-foot ship also carried more than 40 large tents for Haitians, which U.S. Navy personnel lifted off the boat and carried to shore for individuals whose homes were destroyed in the quake.
“We saw a lot of destruction, a lot of broken homes,” McHugh said. “At night, you could see people but there were no lights. It was an eerie feeling. It’s sad, but we did good science and that will be helpful.”
Reach reporter Anna Gustafson by e-mail at agustafson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
