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On the 12th of January, Haiti experienced a magnitude 7 earthquake. This was due to movement of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault that caused a sudden release of stored energy in the form of seismic waves.

Haiti is bounded to the north by the Oriente and Septentrional Fracture Zones and to the south by the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault which are both transform faults (very similar to the San Andreas Fault in the USA).

The Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault has been locked for approximately 250 years. As such, stresses have accumulated in the earth's crust over this time, causing energy to be stored in the form of elastic strain (like that in a compressed spring). Ultimately this stress has exceeded the shear strength of the crust in the fault zone causing a sudden brittle failure or rupture. This in turn causes movement and a sudden release of the stored elastic strain energy in the form of seismic waves (as well as heat and sound).

The rupture of the fault zone was approximately 65 km (40 miles) in length with an average slip of 1.8 m (5.9 ft). Analysis of seismometer data showed that the seismic waves produced by the movement on the fault had amplitudes of up to 4 m (13 ft).

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