Haiti Fault

Haiti Quake Caused by Previously Unknown Fault

A previously unmapped fault was responsible for the magnitude-7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12, not the fault originally blamed for the temblor, scientists announced Tuesday.

The massive earthquake was responsible for the death of more than 200,000 people and left more than 1.5 million homeless.

When the quake hit, scientists thought there was little doubt about the culprit, said geophysicist Eric Calais of Purdue University, at the American Geophysical Union's Meeting of the America's conference in Brazil.

The Enriquillo fault was quickly blamed, but new data, has revealed a more complicated picture.

"The fault responsible for the earthquake was not the Enriquillo fault, but it was a new fault," Calais said. "This was such a big surprise that I thought all our calculations were wrong."

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