The risks for Belize in the age of earthquakes

It was a stronger tremor but the damage of the eight point eight earthquake in Chile on February twenty-seventh, paled in comparison to the devastation in Haiti caused by a magnitude seven point O on January twelfth. While the difference in magnitude doesn’t sound like much because it is measured on an exponential scale, the Chilean quake was actually three hundred times stronger than the one in Haiti. In fact, it was so intense that it is believed to have shifted the earth’s axis, shortening the day by one point two-six microseconds. But apart from the these two recent quakes, there have been several other tremors in this region since the start of the year and the frequency of the quakes has not gone unnoticed. News Five’s Delahnie Bain sat down with the Deputy Director of the Department of Geology and Petroleum for a comprehensive look at earthquakes and what the trend means for Belize.

Delahnie Bain, Reporting

Earthquakes have recently become a regular occurrence in this region.  The increased tectonic activity is drawing much attention in Belize, particularly after the devastation in Haiti which was followed by another other tremor in Chile and then closer to home in Guatemala and Mexico. Deputy Director of the Department of Geology and Petroleum, Craig Moore, says it is important to understand what causes an earthquake.

Craig Moore, Deputy Director, Dept. of Geology & Petroleum

“An earthquake is essentially a release in energy that has been built up. In most cases it is along plate boundaries and it is when rocks are moving; they’re either sliding past each other, dipping under each other, pushing up against each other and it’s not a smooth moving. So as they’re moving, it is huge slobs of rock and it is not a most transition so they will stick and they will build up energy until it releases and that rapid release is what is seen as an earthquake. If we look at the recent Haiti earthquake, that is along what’s called a transform plate boundary where the plates are sliding past each other. The recent earthquake in Chile is at what’s called a subduction zone where you have one plate dipping under another plate so it is subducting.”

Knowing what causes an earthquake is only the first step to understanding what is occurring in the region. Another question that needs to be answered is what is causing more quakes to occur.

Craig Moore

Craig Moore

“Is there a rationale for the increase in the number of earthquakes? The definitive answer is no, because we cannot predict earthquakes. But the applied answer is that there is a correlation. If there is a movement in one section of a plate, you expect to have correlating movements in the other sections of the plate. So the Haiti earthquake and the Cayman earthquake possibly are linked because they are along the same transform boundary. The Chilean earthquake and the earthquake we’ve seen in Guatemala and those areas perhaps are not linked to that because they are a long a different kind of plate boundary, different kinds of movements. Belize is bordered on the south by the Caribbean plate boundary. Belize actually sits on the North American Plate. On the West it is bordered by the Cocos plate which is a subduction zone, which is the back end of Central America essentially and the back end of North America and on the East by the remaining portion of the Caribbean Plate and the South American Plate to the Southeast. So there are a number of different things happening around Belize when it comes to plate tectonics.”

While we have not been directly impacted recently, Belize was rocked by a seven point one shaker that hit Honduras in May of 2009. It is since then that concerns over the possibility of an earthquake in the Jewel arose. But are we more at risk now than we were before that quake and the other recent tremors in the region?

Craig Moore

“No, we’re not. Within the region—we’re in a seismically active region and it’s just that the 2009 earthquake is the one in most recent history for Belizeans when parts of Monkey River and further down south were impacted. But we are in a seismically active region. The plate boundaries are active fault lines so there is active movement along it. It is just that in recent times we’re seeing more earthquakes.  It means that we need to be aware of the causes of earthquakes, we need to be aware of how we handle earthquakes in the country, whether it is through building practices, we need to be aware of the best practices to do during an earthquake. So we will need an education program particularly in schools and in homes so people know what to do, how to respond if there is an earthquake and we need to be vigilant among all things.”

The fact is that the possibility of an earthquake is something we all need to prepare for. But the silver lining, according to Craig, is that the damage will be nowhere near the devastation seen in Haiti.

Craig Moore

“That’s maybe one measure of surety that people can have. There are no active fault lines, no active plate boundaries that run through Belize. It doesn’t mean that we exempt from being at risk and I think that is what needs to be stressed. People worry about how impacted we can be. We can be very impacted by earthquakes in the region because we are one region and if an earthquake in another part of the plate, if it is large enough and if it is deep enough and you have the energy being transmitted across, we can have impacts in Belize.”

And in the event that a quake shakes the earth beneath our feet, Moore says that our emergency management teams will be prepared to respond.

Craig Moore

“Emergency management is broad spectrum. They have specific plans for specific event; hurricanes, floods and those things. But the focus of any emergency management is a multi-hazard approach meaning that whatever the impact, whatever the hazard, whatever the disaster you should be able to apply the same principles across the board. So we are very advanced when it comes to dealing with hurricanes and floods because that has been the primary focus and that has been the primary impact in country. Does that mean that if we had an earthquake we could not respond? No it doesn’t.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Delahnie Bain.

Moore says that while the earthquakes in this region are the ones we focus on, the increased activity is global.