Haiti warned to brace for more quakes

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CLEAN-UP: Life goes on amongst the ruins of Port Au Prince suburb, Belair.

The United Nations headquarters lies in a heap of rubble after an earthquake in Port-au-Prince.

A resident stands next to hundreds of dead bodies at the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince.

Members of Nicaragua's civil defence load a plane with boxes of humanitarian aid bound for Haiti at an air force base in Managua.

MINUSTAH peacekeepers work to find survivors at the collapsed UN headquarters in Port-au-Prince.

A Haitian boy receives treatment at an ad-hoc medical clinic in Haiti.

Haitians left homeless after the earthquake gather in a Port-au-Prince park.

The body of an earthquake victim is covered with the Haitian flag beside other earthquake casualties in Port-au-Prince.

Containers toppled by the earthquake in Port-au-Prince.

Destroyed buildings in Port-au-Prince.

Bodies of earthquake victims lie on a street in Port-au-Prince.

A resident carries an injured person for medical assistance in Port-au-Prince.

A resident watches as debris is removed from the national palace in Port-au-Prince after the earthquake.

Residents walks along a destroyed street after the devastating earthquake.

Haiti's earthquake has taken a massive human toll in Port-au-Prince.

Haitians survey the destruction in Port-au-Prince.

A man searches for relatives in Port-au-Prince after Haiti's devastating earthquake.

People walk past destroyed buildings in Port-au-Prince.

Resident search for survivors among the debris.

Destroyed homes on a hillside are seen near Port-au-Prince.

A man walks amid devastated buildings in Port-au-Prince.

FRANTIC SEARCH: Residents search for victims after an earthquake in Port-au-Prince.

LEFT IN RUINS: People are seen near the ruins of a building, which was destroyed after a major earthquake struck Haiti.

PICKING UP THE PIECES: People react on a street after a major earthquake struck Port-au-Prince in this video grab.

IN RUINS: A fire breaks out near a building, which was damaged after a major earthquake struck, in Port-au-Prince in this video grab.

PILES OF RUBBLE: Much of what was devastated in Haiti's earthquake remains untouched.

DEVASTATION: People walk along a street lined with buildings, which were destroyed after a major earthquake struck, in Port-au-Prince in this video grab.

HELPING THE INJURED: People carry an injured person after an earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Haitians amid destroyed buildings.

A building reduced to rubble by the earthquake in Haiti.

Haitians on the street after the devastating earthquake.

Traffic snarled after the earthquake.

A building cracked after Haiti's devastating earthquake.

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Haiti should be preparing for another major earthquake that could be triggered by the catastrophic one last month which killed up to 200,000 people, experts say.

Teams of geophysicists, who have been tracking movements in the fault line that slashes across Haiti and into the Dominican Republic, came to the nation last week to measure changes in the Earth's crust after the 7.0-magnitude quake on January 12.

Increased pressure on the fault after the quake could unleash another of the same size or bigger, although scientists acknowledge they have no way of knowing exactly when or where it will hit.

"Faults are always waiting for the right moment but if another earthquake gives them a little kick they go before their time," said Eric Calais, a professor of geophysics from Purdue University in Indiana, who is leading the seismology project in Haiti.

Preliminary calculations by his group show the January 12 quake could be the "little kick" that sets off another temblor along the 300km fault where two regional tectonic plates have been scraping together for millions of years.

More than 50 aftershocks, including one measuring 5.9 magnitude, have shaken Port-au-Prince after last month's quake. The US Geological Survey says the aftershock sequence will continue for months, "if not years", and "damaging earthquakes will remain possible in the coming months".

Calais was due to take his findings to a meeting on Monday with President Rene Preval and the head of the United Nations mission in Haiti, in which he would stress the urgent need to rebuild the city's critical infrastructure safely and quickly.

Haiti's government has announced plans to relocate up to half a million homeless quake victims - many now camped out in rubble-strewn streets - in temporary villages outside of Port-au-Prince. But some experts suggest the whole capital should be rebuilt away from the dangerous fault line.

QUAKE PREDICTION NOT AN EXACT SCIENCE

Calais was part of a group of experts who warned Haitian officials in 2008 that there could be a 7.2 magnitude quake on the horizon.

But Haitian officials said there was not enough time or funds to shore up the impoverished Caribbean's country's shoddy construction or take precautions, and in last month's quake, many buildings pancaked, their bricks crumbling to dust.

"It's not too late. Now is the time to really get serious about this," Calais said.

Over 200 years ago, when Haiti saw its last major earthquake, there were actually several temblors in a row, two in 1751 and another in 1770, Calais said.

In one destroyed neighbourhood in the Haitian capital, where people now live in tents made of bed sheets and sticks, curious children watched the scientists set up specialised global positioning systems.

The devices, placed at different points along the fault, will gather data over three days and compare it to information gathered over the past five years.

But for all the precise measurements, there is no such thing as an exact science of earthquake prediction.

Haiti's national geological survey offices collapsed in the quake, killing some 30 people inside, including the institute's director. This complicates future research in a country that has no seismic network, except for Calais' GPS monitors.

"Scientists are blind when it comes to this earthquake ... We rely on data that is coming from stations that are far away," he said.

"It's like if you go to your doctor and the only thing we can do is look at you with binoculars - so the diagnostic would be pretty poor."

- Reuters