The point where the earthquake starts is called the focus. Energy waves disperse rapidly from this point. The point at ground level, directly above the focus, is called the epicentre. On Tuesday 12 January 2010 at 16:53, a huge earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.0 on the Richter scale, struck the Caribbean island of Haiti. Haiti is only half of an island, the other half being the Dominican Republic, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and has a history of destructive earthquakes.
Gonzalez Jesse Period 3 5/5/2011 Japan and Haiti’s earthquake Japan and Haiti, two countries that got hit by enormous earthquakes. Japan of the richest countries in the world, was shookened by a 9.0 magnitude after a tsunami and then nuclear crissis. Haiti, one of the poorest countries, got hit by a 7.0 earthquake and then an outbreak known as cholera. Japans earthquake caused a lot of casualties , damage, and weakened its economy. Haitis earthquake had casualties, a lot of damge, and their economy was weaker than it was.
Why did so many people die in Haiti’s earthquake? The earthquake that hit Haiti in 2010 was only a magnitude 7.0, a hundred times weaker than the earthquake that hit Japan a year later; yet the severity of the damage caused was completely different. There are several reasons for why the Haitian earthquake was able to cause so much damage, but some of the major reasons are because of Haiti’s location relative to the tectonic plates, the low level of development of Haiti, the time of day the earthquake hit, and the history that lead up to the current state of Haiti. Haiti is a country located on top of the Caribbean plate which is in between the North and South American plate. This poses a great earthquake hazard to Haiti.
2) In your opinion what were the main factors that caused such a massive amount of death and destruction in the Haiti Earthquake? The main factors contributing to the massive amount of death and destruction included the location and size of the initial earthquake, the nation’s vulnerability to such disasters due to the amount of poverty within Port au Prince and the lack of preparation for such a disaster. The initial earthquake occurred at 4:43pm local time with a focus situated approximately 25km to the west of the capital Port au Prince at a depth of 13km. Due to the closeness to the surface of the focus, the shockwaves of the earthquake were much more powerful when they reached the surface, when compared to an earthquake that occurred 10km deeper into the earth crust. According to Pete Garrat, the Red Cross head of disaster relief, the most lethal combination of all of the factors contributing to the huge death toll, was location of the epicentre and the density of the population in heavily urbanised and poverty stricken areas nearby.
Nurses and health care providers implement aspects from a few different canons into the process of aiding in infection control and prevention of cholera in Haiti. Cholera is an extremely deadly disease, as of 2010 it affects 3-5 million individuals and causes about 100,000-130,000 deaths a year. Cholera is caused by the bacteria Vibrio cholerae which results in a diarrhea illness (Kraft, 2010). “This bacterium can enter a human’s internal environment through different pathways, with consuming dirty water and food being the most prevalent reason for acquiring this disease” (Kraft, 2010). In 2010, 303 people passed away due to the cholera outbreak in Haiti, and over 4,700 individuals were treated for this illness (Cholera Prevention Efforts, 2010).
The storm gets bigger as the low pressure sucks in more warm moist air this also causes strong winds. The main impact from the hurricane was the national hurricane centre in Miami lost its radar, ammeter and satellite communications equipment, this reduced the ability to monitor and forecast storm track. A social impact was the loss of homes, 25,000 homes destroyed and 100,000 badly damaged. As wind speed was so high it caused jumbo jets at Miami International Airport to blow of the runways, also at Tamiani airport hangars and light aircraft were destroyed. Although the natural hazard was very destructive only 30 people died, and some of these deaths could have been prevented.
The epicentre was a town named Leogane; about 19km (12 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, thousands were left homeless and up to 80-90% of buildings in Leogane were destroyed. The quake was quickly followed by two strong aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5 magnitudes. It was the worst earthquake to hit the Caribbean island in 2 centuries. The island lies on the Enriquilla-Plantain Garden Fault however it was caused by an interaction between the North American and Caribbean Plates. After which the barely noticed island became the centre of the world’s news channels, it became one of the most noticed natural disasters in history with celebrities and normal people alike doing allsorts to raise money and aid for the victims of the quake.
The tremendous eruption of Mount Tambora in April 1815 was the most powerful volcanic eruption of the 19th century. The eruption and the tsunamis it triggered killed tens of thousands of people. And the magnitude of the explosion is difficult to fathom. It has been estimated that Mount Tambora stood approximately 12,000 feet tall before the 1815 eruption, and the top 4,000 feet of the mountain was completely obliterated. Adding to the disaster's massive scale, the huge amount of dust blasted into the upper atmosphere by the Tambora eruption contributed to a bizarre and highly destructive weather event the following year.
Haiti is on the boundary of the Caribbean and North American plates and is an example of a conservative plate boundary. Volcanic eruptions are also one the greatest threats among the natural hazards. The active land, volcanoes of the world occupy are only 0.6% of the total land area. Most volcanoes are spread along the coast, in areas that are also earthquake zones. Mid-ocean volcanic ridges are formed where the ocean floors split and move apart.
This earthquake was named Loma Prieta earthquake and occurred at a time of 5:04 (PDT) with a magnitude measurement of 6.9 and a surface wave magnitude of 7.1. The earthquake was caused by a slip in slip in San Andreas or a subsidiary and its epicenter was located ten miles northeast of the city Santa Cruz. The earthquake had also had a death toll of 62 people with the number of injured people reaching a amount of 3,757 ! Not only this however the earthquake had cost California approximately 6.8 billion dollars. This was because of many fires, houses with severe damages, and buildings with severe damages.