2 hours ago 3.6 Dominican Republic region
12 hours ago 5.4 Dominican Republic region
earthquake.usgs.gov
?If I had had to make a bet, I would have bet that the first earthquake would have taken place in the northern Dominican Republic, not Haiti,? a geophysicist at Purdue University told the New York Times last Tuesday.
The article was entitled, ?A Deadly Quake in a Seismic Hot Zone.?
The fault that ruptured violently on Jan. 12 had been building up strain since the last major earthquake in Port-au-Prince, 240 years ago. . . But about 100 miles to the north is a similar fault, the Septentrional, that has not had a quake in 800 years. Researchers have estimated that a rupture along that fault . . . could result in a magnitude 7.5 quake that could cause severe damage in the Dominican Republic?s second largest city, Santiago, and the surrounding Cibao Valley .