NASA to study Haiti earthquake faults with jet equipped with airborne radar system

NASA radar to study Haiti earthquake faults

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA will study Haiti’s earthquake faults with a series of overflights by a jet equipped with a special airborne radar system.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena says a space agency Gulfstream jet carrying the system departed NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in the Mojave Desert on Monday.

Scientists had already planned a three-week aerial survey of Central America and added a series of flights over the island of Hispaniola after the magnitude-7.0 quake that devastated Haiti on Jan. 12.

Principal investigator Paul Lundgren says the radar will image deformations of the Earth’s surface and other changes involving post-earthquake geologic processes.

JPL has been using the system since November to study California’s huge San Andreas and other major faults.