THIS ISSUE

摘要

Seismologist Roger Bilham reports from Port-au-Prince on the aftermath of the recent earthquake. The event seems to have released all the elastic energy accumulated on this part of the Caribbean Plate boundary since 1770, yet Bilham and others calculate that the risk of a large quake on adjacent segments of the fault is now greater than before. As elsewhere, it was unsuitable buildings that caused the high casualty rate. It is time, suggests Bilham, to establish a new United Nations mission with the brief to make sure that all construction in cities prone to earthquakes can with-standrnseismic shock.