Civil Engineering Professor Ellen Rathje was among a team of engineers and scientists commissioned by the United Nations to create the first detailed soil map of Port-au-Prince in the aftermath of the 7.0 earthquake that struck the country in January 2010.
Armed with sledgehammers and vibration sensors last November, the team surveyed how soils throughout Port-au-Prince either amplify or muffle seismic vibrations. The resulting map can now be used to guide reconstruction efforts. This video tells the story of how geologists and engineers in Haiti and San Francisco are improving our resilience to powerful shifts of the earth's crust. The video is now on display at the American Museum of Natural History.
Ellen Rathje holds the Warren S. Bellows Centennial Professorship in Civil Engineering and the J. Neils Thompson Centennial Teaching Fellowship in Civil Engineering.
