Haiti Advised To Relocate Capital

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Haiti Advised To Relocate Capital

February 4. 2010

As the death toll in Haiti tops 200,000, the Haitian government is being advised by geologists, to relocate the country's capital, Port-Au-Prince, as the current location lies on a deadly earthquake fault that could erupt again within this generation, as it did last month, coming in at 7.0 on the Richter Scale.

There is logic to what they are stating and it would not be the first time in history such an occurrence has happened in the world, due to a natural disaster. Though for Haitians, it will be difficult to let go of the region that is currently the capital. It is definitely something for their government to ponder.

Haiti death toll tops 200,000 as aid anger mounts

February 4, 2010 - The aid flooding into Haiti by plane and boat is not reaching earthquake victims quickly enough to stem growing unrest.

The death toll in the Haiti quake has topped 200,000, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said on Wednesday, as angry protests over the slow arrival of aid flared on the rubble-strewn streets...

http://www.smh.com.au

Geologists warn Haiti to move its capital

By TIM PADGETT Tim Padgett – Tue Feb 2, 12:15 pm ET - The image on Falk Amelung's laptop screen looks like 1960s psychedelia. But the interferogram, a composite radar snapshot of Haiti captured by Japanese satellite before and just after the Jan. 12 earthquake, is a trove of geological information.

And much of it has surprised the University of Miami professor of geology and geophysics. "In theory this should have been an earthquake of simple left-lateral movement along the fault line," says Amelung. Then he points to the kaleidoscopic color contours rippling from the quake's epicenter, west of the capital, Port-au-Prince, which indicate vertical quake movement as well. "It's more than we would have thought to see in this region," he says. "We're puzzling over this."

As a result of that anomaly and others they've seen so far, Amelung and many of his colleagues are urging the Haitian government and its international donors to consider relocating the capital, which was largely reduced to rubble by the quake. The most important infrastructure should be rebuilt at a site well away from a fault line that they believe will rupture again within the next generation or two, but even closer to Port-au-Prince. "...

http://news.yahoo.com