Map of earthquakes in Haiti

As of Wednesday afternoon, 37 aftershocks have rattled the country of Haiti following the 7.0 major earthquake that hit at 3:53 PM Tuesday. Thousands of people are believed to be dead. Every aftershock has been at least a 4.2 magnitude.

The map below shows the exact epicenter of every temblor.

The data is gathered by the U.S. Geological Survey. The latitude, longitude and magnitude of every earthquake is automatically plotted on our weather system.

The USGS reports, "The quake occurred along the fault line that separates the Caribbean and North American tectonic plates."  The two geologic plates shifted horizontally Tuesday afternoon causing the earthquake.  This was the strongest quake to hit Haiti in more than a century.

Comments

[Amanda]

I for one enjoy all of Tim's posts, whether they be about Houston or not.

[oliver]

This of course is an interesting and important international story, and may actually be of interest to Houston residents (relatives, donations, travel etc.), but it doesn't seem to me to be related to Houston weather, climate and how it affects us.

Could you relate this to Houston weather, climate or perhaps even geology? Do the same faults extend into the oil fields off or on shore? Are we expecting high tides, great surfing or wind surfing becasue of the quake?

I know you won't publish this but for my $0.02 on a Houston Weather Blog I like to see information about Houston Weather. If I want international news etc. I can go elsewhere and I am sure you can post such info on the general ABC13 blog (perhaps you did) .. put a footnote saying for Houston weather information see my blog.

RESPONSE from TIM HELLER:

The map was something I showed on-the-air during our coverage of the earthquake. I thought some viewers might be interested in getting a better look at the data so I posted it here.

About 90% of the posts I write are about Houston weather and climate. About 9% are about the night sky, technology and science. The other 1% is about things that interest me and/or my viewers and are listed under the category "Weather or Not." The mix seems to work. We have a large number of people who read the Houston Weather Blog every day.