3 Questions: Bradford Hager on Haiti’s coming quakes
Bradford Hager, MIT’s Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Earth Sciences, studies problems that involve the deformation of Earth, including the strain that occurs before, during and after an earthquake. By analyzing the patterns of strain caused by the faults that make up plate boundaries, geophysicists like Hager try to identify where earthquakes or other catastrophic events could happen based on the characteristics of the preceding seismic event.In an interview with MIT News, Hager said the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti will likely lead to others in the area relatively soon. He also discussed why a stretch of Southern California is overdue for a major seismic event. Q. Does the Haiti earthquake raise the risk for an even more catastrophic seismic event at some point in the future and, if so, how? A. Fortunately, the faults that make up the plate boundaries do not break all in one earthquake....