Images

This photo was taken by USGS seismologist Susan Hough two months after the magnitude-7 earthquake struck Port-au-Prince on Jan. 12, 2010. Dr. Hough traveled to Haiti with USGS colleagues Doug Given, Mark Meremonte, and J. Zebulon Maharrey to install seismometers, which monitor the earth's movement and can detect and measure aftershocks.

USGS seimologist Doug Given works with colleagues from the Bureau des Mines et de l'Energie to install a seismometer. Seismometers monitor the earth's movement and can detect and measure aftershocks. Given traveled to Haiti with USGS colleagues Susan Hough, Mark Meremonte, and J. Zebulon Maharrey shortly after a magnitude-7 earthquake struck on Jan. 12, 2010.

The Hotel Montana, shown here, is a portable seismometer site. USGS Seismologists Doug Given, Susan Hough, Mark Meremonte, and J. Zebulon Maharrey traveled to Haiti shortly after the magnitude-7 earthquake struck Port-au-Prince on Jan. 12, 2010 to install seismometers. Seismometers monitor the earth's movement and can detect and measure aftershocks.

USGS seismologist Doug Given worked with colleagues from the Bureau des Mines et de l'Energie to install a seismometer. Seismometers monitor the earth's movement and can detect and measure aftershocks. Given traveled to Haiti with USGS colleagues Susan Hough, Mark Meremonte, and J.

Earthquake-triggered landslide on south coast of Haiti near village of Nan Diamant.

A tidal marsh bank exposed during low tide on Sitkinak Island, Alaska. The bank reveals ledges of alternating peat and silt. Abrupt uplift and subsidence during large megathrust earthquakes is interpreted to be the cause of the alternating layers.

Base camp, Sitkinak Island.

Blue tents in Longmen near epicenter.

Life in a tent. A grandfather taking the baby outside the tent. The wall with shear crack behind him was their house which suffered serious damage.

Damage to a village house.

Damage to a village house. Longmenxiang.

Geologists examine cores on Sitkinak Island, Alaska.

Geologists examine an exposure of a tidal marsh bank on Sitkinak Island, Alaska. The bank exposes interbedded peat and silt that records sudden vertical land movements associated with megathrust fault slip during large earthquakes.

Geologists extract a hand-driven core from 2-3 m depth on Sitkinak Island, Alaska. The cores contain peat with interbedded sand layers that record inundation of the coast by prehistoric tsunamis. (l-r: Peter Haeussler, USGS; Andrew Kemp, Tufts University; Alan Nelson, USGS)

Geologists driving a core into marsh sediment to document interbedded peat and silt that records sudden vertical land movements associated with megathrust fault slip during large earthquakes.

Heavy rains from a tropical cyclone struck the islands of the Comoros in March, 2014. On the island of Anjouan in the Union of Comoros, these rains triggered landslides that displaced over 3000 people to refugee camps. The USGS and the OFDA with USAID are providing support and research assistance on these events.

Firemen and the rescue team building tents for homeless people in a middle school square.

Homeless people waiting in line for food and water. Aid agencies have scrambled to provide food, shelter and medical supplies to the thousands of people made homeless by the quake and strong aftershocks.

Life in a tent. Family members having lunch together.

Closeup shot of the same area above. The cross-cutting feature is a road cut going through the fault.

The May 12, 2008, Great Sichuan Earthquake, also called the Wenchuan Earthquake, occurred at 14:28 local time, in Sichuan Province, China. The earthquake magnitudes were Mw = 7.9 (USGS), Ms = 8.0 (Chinese Earthquake Administration). The epicenter was 80 km west-northwest of Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan province.