Le Nouvelliste | The great South is waking up seismically, warns geologist Éric Calais
The great South is waking up seismically, warns geologist Éric Calais
Between Monday and Wednesday, no less than 75 earthquakes with magnitudes reaching up to the Richter scale were recorded in the country, precisely in the southern zone. This confirms that this part of the country is waking up seismically, comments geologist Eric Calais.
Posted on 2022-01-26 | lenouvelliste.com
“We have noticed since Monday morning, a somewhat special sequence of earthquakes. We know a number of things. They do not take place on the Enriquillo Fault. It is a secondary fault that has woken up, ”geologist Eric Calais said on the morning of Magik 9, Wednesday January 26, 2022, while specifying that it is not mapped. “We are in the process of evaluating. It is possible that it is part of a set of faults that are found offshore along the coast of the southern peninsula,” added the seismologist.
According to the geologist, there is a known zone of seismic faults and they are working to determine if this sequence took place on the offshore faults. would show us that this system of faults at sea is active and contributes to the seismic threat,” said Eric Calais.
Between Monday and Wednesday, no less than 75 earthquakes were recorded in the country, particularly in the deep South. This confirms, in the opinion of geologist Eric Calais, that the great South is waking up seismically. “There is obviously a risk that something bigger will be triggered, but you can’t really quantify it in a precise way,” he explains. The geologist reassures however that in most cases, the seismicity tests are not followed by a large earthquake, except in certain cases, that is to say in a proportion of less than 10%.
The sequence of recent days should encourage us to be cautious, advises Eric Calais. This tells us, he underlines, that we must change our attitude because we are faced with a situation for which we are not ready. If we can’t change everything overnight, Eric Calais believes the sooner we act, the better.
“The remedies are the same. When you are in the area affected by these earthquakes, you have to be extremely careful about the buildings you use these days. We must not use the buildings which seem to us the weakest, ”prescribes Calais, who says he is particularly worried about the great South. It also offers the verification and reinforcement of constructions and to have the right reflexes in the event of earthquakes felt. The geologist invites public and private institutions in particular to carry out simulation exercises (SIMEX) in order to enable individuals to develop the right reflexes in the event of an earthquake.
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