Haiti Has Most Fatalities, But Not Largest Quake

With the new year beginning we often look back at what occurred in the last year and remember the events that took place. We as a society tend to want to always make a "best of" list and see what can make it onto it. Earthquakes are no exception, and 2010 marked yet another historic year. Obviously, the quakes that struck Haiti topped the list. The article points out of the 227,000 people that died in 2010 due to quakes, 222,570 were located in Haiti. As devastating as that figure is, the quake that shook Haiti didn't actually top out the list for largest quake in scale readings. The Haitian quake came in at an astounding 7.0, whereas a magnitude 8.8 quake shook off shore of Bio-Bio Chile on February 27th and took the title of largest quake. 

The red bulls eye area shows the shock wave felt by Haitians by the earthquake on January 12th, 2010. This quake topped out the list for most casualties in 2010.

The difference between the Haitian quake and the Chile quake is the Chile quake only had 577 deaths, most of which were caused by a tsunami that followed the quake. The article explains that even though the energy released by the quake was 500 times more powerful than the one in Haiti, Chile has stricter building codes that helped cope with the natural disaster.

This image shows the shock wave felt by Chileans on February 27th, 2010. While it was 500 times stronger than the Haiti quake, it had far fewer casualties, a mere 577 compared to Haiti's 277,570.


 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110117142732.htm