"Why bother with Haiti?
There's nothing left."

A country drenched in catastrophe, not to mention political turmoil and poverty, the nation of Haiti lost more than 200,000 citizens within days of the 2010 Haiti Earthquake. Millions of dollars and more than two years later, nearly two million people remain homeless and without basic necessities.

Seismologists argue that an even bigger quake may occur in the next 20-40 years.

New studies suggest that the 2010 event only partially relieved centuries of accumulated strain on a small part of the plate-boundary system. The Caribbean is well known for earthquakes and volcanic activity. But while islands such as Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and Antilles chains are fairly well-studied, Haiti hasn't received the same attention.

In the next few months, Geoscientists Without Borders® will use your donations to provide a grant to the University of Houston to find and understand Haiti's blind fault system, and also illuminate the mystery surrounding its subsurface structure and related hazards which are not well understood. While you and your family may not live near Haiti, chances are your heart probably sinks to think about additional deaths and mass destruction which may occur in the next 20-40 years. The island won't likely even be rebuilt by then.

Haiti, and the larger island of Hispaniola (also containing the Dominican Republic), has the geological fate of straddling one of the world's most active geological zones, where the deepwater plates of three huge structures relentlessly rub against one another-the intersection of the North American, South American and Caribbean tectonic plates. In effect, the region has two parallel plate boundaries which are quite unusual given the number of people who live on the island. The earthquake was a wake-up call to try and understand the system and prevent more loss.

Researchers from the University of Houston, Southern Methodist University, and the University of Calgary will be working together on the project. They have already teamed up with the State University of Haiti and the Haiti Bureau of Mines to combine knowledge, data, and resources to make the work a success. A unique opportunity, required as part of a GWB project, is to use student participation. Dozens of students from all of the universities will learn to use geophysical equipment and gain hands-on experience from some of the best scientists in the world. The project, comparatively small in economic comparison, will have a lasting impact on the entire region.

Disaster risk reduction (DRR) is generally divided into four phases: Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery. Most of us gave to the relief effort in Haiti, and although the world has donated nearly $2 billion to the nation, massive homelessness and displacement has barely been abated. The overwhelming majority of the monies have gone to the response and recovery phase.

If you consider the effect that a portion of this money would have had - if used in mitigation and preparedness - you will see that the devastation and massive death toll would have been significantly smaller. Although an earthquake cannot be predicted down the exact date, early warning systems and better structural support would have made all the difference. With your support, we are making a difference in Haiti and all over the world. Thank you for joining with us!

Learn more about the Haiti project.

GWB welcomes The Geological Society of America as our first supporting society!

Read more about our new partnership.

Thank you GSA!