The earthquake that devastated the capital of Haiti, killing about 300,000 people in January may have been caused by a fault different from what was previously considered the reason for the tremor.

The pressure has accumulated could cause another concussion, experts said yesterday.

Two articles published in the journal Nature Geoscience, while adopting different approaches, conclude that the fault which was initially attributed the tremor was not fully responsible.

“As the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault did not release any significant accumulated elastic strain, it remains a significant seismic threat for Haiti and for Port-au-Prince in particular,” Eric Calais of Purdue University in Indiana and colleagues wrote.

The earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12 left a million homeless. Now, a cholera outbreak hits the spot, amid the devastation.

Another study, led by Carol Prentice, a geological research center in California, also said the quake of 2010 may not have released pressure system failures Enriquillo-Plantain Garden.

Prentice’s team has used remote sensing and field work to identify the surface changes caused by the January earthquake in Haiti or older events.

They found marks left by two major earthquakes in the fault system Enriquillo-Plantain Garden in 1751 and 1770. The earthquake this year has not left traces on the surface, and Prentice reckons that accumulated tension may not have been released.

Via: Reuters.