On 13 January 2010, I wake up to emails and radio news about a magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Haiti, and a missed phone message left just before midnight inviting me to be interviewed on the couch for breakfast TV. Too late for that now, but I go straight to the United States Geological Survey earthquake hazards program website to find out what has happened.
The motion was sideways slip on one of the major faults where the Caribbean plate grinds eastwards against the North American plate. A magnitude 7 quake is not necessarily a disaster; there are about twenty of these somewhere in the world in an average year, but I see that in this case the initial rupture occurred at a shallow depth of about 10 kilometres.
This would make the ground shaking much more severe than if the quake had been deeper, moreover the epicentre lay close to Haiti’s sprawling capital city of Port au Prince.
An earthquake is the last thing the desperately poor nation of Haiti needs, coming so soon after hurricanes and flooding in 2004 and 2008. Hundreds feared dead, runs the preliminary report, but as the day wears on estimates of the death toll rise into thousands and then several tens of thousands.
Pictures on news websites show concrete-framed buildings in a state of collapse, with their masonry infill fallen onto the streets below. It is well known how to make comparable buildings earthquake resistant, but it seems that the authorities in Haiti are in no position to enforce building regulations, or maybe they are simply ignorant of the risk. This was the biggest quake in Haiti for at least a century, but any geologist could have pointed out that a significant quake was inevitable at some time.
I wonder about the state of earthquake awareness among the local population, and also among foreign visitors to Haiti, as I listen to their accounts of running in panic from buildings as bricks cascade into the streets. What you should do if you are inside when an earthquake strikes, as school children in Japan, California and China are aware, is to dive under a table and stay there until the shaking has finished. The table will offer you some protection if the roof collapses, but if you panic and run outside you are likely to be hit by falling masonry or glass.
The priority right now, of course, is for material aid, rather than education (donations can be made via DEC.org.uk) - but awareness of earthquake hazards and ways to reduce the risks should become part of the longer term strategy. The next big one could be next week, next year, or not for a hundred years. It could strike Haiti, or Jamaica or southern Cuba.
![Earthquake activity around Hispaniola, 06.44, 13-01-10 [Map: USGS]](/openlearn/files/ole/imported/blogs/200901130644.jpg)
Used with permission
Maps: USGS
The maps here show how the pattern of seismicity, as reported by the USGS, developed in the first two days after the initial quake. The squares are proportional to the magnitude of each quake (on the Richter scale), and the colour distinguishes quakes in the last hour, last day and last week prior to the time when the map was compiled. The biggest square is of course the main magnitude 7.0 earthquake, but you can see a whole series of aftershocks (some as large as magnitude 5) happening nearby.
Globovision under CC-BY licence
The Presidential Palace in Haiti's capital, Port-Au-Prince, after the earthquake
![UK Fire Service Urban Search and Rescue specialists wait to board a DFID-chartered flight to Haiti [Image: Michael Haig / Department For International Development under CC-BY-NC-ND licence]](/openlearn/files/ole/imported/blogs/dfid_4273960684_57a6aa7c31_o.jpg)
Michael Haig / Department For International Development under CC-BY-NC-ND licence
UK Fire Service Urban Search and Rescue specialists wait to board a DFID-chartered flight to Haiti
Dr Gulas under CC-BY licence
Survivors gather in the street
![A collapsed building [Image: Caritas under CC-BY-NC-SA licence]](/openlearn/files/ole/imported/blogs/cariitas_cc_4273302841_5e8cd411b0.jpg)
Caritas under CC-BY-NC-SA licence
A collapsed building
US Coastguard under CC-BY-NC licence]
Damage at Port-Au-Prince docks
![Aerial view of survivors gathering in a sports stadium. [Image: US Coastguard under CC-BY-NC licence]](/openlearn/files/ole/imported/blogs/us_coastguard_air_4273187129_98d5c94d4f_b.jpg)
US Coastguard under CC-BY-NC licence
Aerial view of survivors gathering in a sports stadium the morning after the quake hit
Find out more
Haiti Earthquake: BBC news coverage
Free learning from The Open University: Earthquakes in the LearningSpace
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Comments on: "The Haiti Earthquake: January 12th, 2010"
ateequr rahman has started a thread discussing The Haiti Earthquake: January 12th, 2010.
oh! God what a devastating earth quake.
Precious lives are lost. I am sure that this is one of the first and best sites which has covered the calamity. I am really stunned by the number of casualties. In this hour of need let us strive to get the victims all the help they need. ATEEQUR RAHMAN, INDIA
Re: Comments on: "The Haiti Earthquake: January 12th, 2010&
What can we do other than send money when this kind of disaster strikes? Nothing much, by the look of it: cash seems to be the most useful thing, and it's most effective when put straight into the hands of the survivors, because food and building materials are usually available locally. No doubt we'll all watch the pictures on TV for a couple of weeks, and then the news will shut it out as if it never happened and we'll hear no more until the next disaster strikes somewhere else. But shouldn't we be trying to act before earthquakes strike instead of waiting till they happen? We never seem to learn: people live, study and work in buildings which we all know will fall down in a strong quake, and yet their chances of survival could be increased massively just by making sure those buildings have the right kind of furniture in them, and by that I mean such things as tables that can't be crushed.
It is totally impractical to think of knocking down all non-quakeproof buildings and replacing them, so we need to assume that they will fall down with people inside them and make sure there are safe places they can throw themselves into which will not be crushed and which will protect them from falling masonry. Flimsy tables are flattened in an instant, but it is possible to make ones that are virtually impossible to crush. If you have a multi-story building with concrete floors that collapses, it should be possible to put enough uncompressible material on each floor to keep a survival space between floors, and in a school, that could be done purely by using the right kind of desks. Beds too should be designed as uncompressible safety cages. It would also be wise to have a cheap plastic whistle and bottles of water kept in each of these survival spaces, and ideally a supply of plastic bags.
Another thing people should do is keep a supply of tinned food and cans of soft drinks in an upper floor room of their house so that they can dig them out relatively quickly: it always takes a couple of weeks before emergancy supplies make it through to where they're needed. The trick is to keep a store of food that will last that long and to replace it continually such that the older stuff is never more than a few months old, and none of it is ever wasted. Soft drinks in cans are more likely to survive a building collapse than bottled water, but keeping them in a strong wooden box would also help to keep them intact. Basic medical supplies could also be stored along with the food. Of course, the cost and availability of tinned food and bottled water won't make this practical in many of the poorest places, but anyone who can afford to make such preparations will take the pressure off to some degree and make it easier for emergency supplies to reach the people who need them most.
Are there any organisations checking out buildings in earthquake-prone places and advising people on how they could be made safer in ways that aren't prohibitively expensive? People have survived quakes before now just by stepping into an ordinary wardrobe which then withstood the total collapse of a house. Are there any companies actively designing and manufacturing quakeproof furniture? That is something I would like to put money into.
Re: Comments on: "The Haiti Earthquake: January 12th, 2010&
Another thought occurs to me: if you want to be sure people dig you out, it would be a good idea to keep a large supply of tinned food and canned drinks in the lowest part of your house and to let all your friends and relatives know it's there. Money too, perhaps, though you'd need to be more selective about who you tell. If you live in an earthquake danger zone, a big one will strike on the tomorrow of a day just like today, so don't leave your future to luck: prepare now.
Re: Comments on: "The Haiti Earthquake: January 12th, 2010&
Very altruistic David, but you are referring to one of the poorest nations on Earth, with one of the most corrupt elite castes. Compounding the problem is the fact that Haiti for all intents and purposes has been without a functional government since 2008. You are dealing with people who struggle on a daily basis for the necessities of life under normal circumstances. Stores of tinned food, and bottles of water are luxury items that even the ordinary citizen of Haiti can ill afford, let alone have access to, or money to purchase if they had access.
There is no doubt that the events in Haiti are unfortunate, but what does it say for us as a society as a whole when we consider such an event to be so devastating while at the same time turning a blind eye to the fact that one child dies of starvation globally every 5-6 seconds (600-720/hour or 14.4-17.3 thousand/day or 5.3-6.3 million/annum depending on the source).
Send all the money you want, and all the humanitarian aid you can muster, but the stark reality is that few of the poor of Haiti will see any of it, but you can rest assured knowing that the elite of Haiti will live high-off-the-hog thanks to your generous donations.
Re: Comments on: "The Haiti Earthquake: January 12th, 2010&
I agree with most of your post, but not the bit above: I was giving advice to anyone who lives in an earthquake danger zone where the buildings have not been designed to be quake proof. Istanbul could be destroyed at any time, and even in the USA there are cities in the firing line where many schools are old and will undoubtedly collapse. More well-prepared survivors will lead to more help for the unprepared ones, so it's worth making suggestions that might encourage even a few people to do something positive in advance rather than afterwards. The original poster is in India but can afford access to the Net, so my suggested preparations may not be out of reach.
Re: Comments on: "The Haiti Earthquake: January 12th, 2010&
Haiti
Politics of Haiti
Now I must agree in most part with the rest of your post, but, there are constraints that border your argument. One must take into consideration the relative wealth of the individuals who live within earthquake zones. Then one must also consider the relative wealth of the nation in which these individuals live. It is therefore safe to assume that individuals living in poor and developing countries are not likely to have the resources available to them in order to facilitate your recommendations.
Re: Comments on: "The Haiti Earthquake: January 12th, 2010&
I wasn't disagreeing with this bit:-
I was disagreeing with this bit:-
I was not referring to Haiti: I was talking about all the places where earthquakes are a serious threat. What I was suggesting has little relevance to Haiti now given that a quake has just struck there, so I was aiming my suggestions at people like the OP (original poster).
Re: Comments on: "The Haiti Earthquake: January 12th, 2010&
David if you go back and re-read your opening statement you will see that you were directly addressing the situation in Haiti. Therefore my statement stands as correct.
Re: Comments on: "The Haiti Earthquake: January 12th, 2010&
Here again is that opening statemement:-
This part in blue refers to Haiti (and one bit was wrong - it's still in the news because it killed five times as many people as first thought). The part in red doesn't refer to Haiti, and nor does any of what follows, although it does draw lessons from what happened in Haiti.
I know what I said, so stop trying to twist it into something else. I don't know what your game is, but it certainly isn't a positive one and could even do some harm. Look at what you said at the end of your first post:-
That is extremely unhelpful: we know that considerable amounts of aid do get through, as recent programmes about areas affected by the tsunami have shown. To suggest that most or all of the money will end up in the hands of a rich elite is utterly irresponsible (whether it is true or not) and may result in the poor getting even less help. It would be better to point out to people which charities are best at getting aid to people on the ground without diverting a massive percentage of donations into their own salaries, so you might like to research that if you want to make a more positive contribution to cancel out the harm you may have done.
Re: Comments on: "The Haiti Earthquake: January 12th, 2010&
We know that much of the humanitarian aid thrown at North Korea gets through as well. So why then are human body parts a common site in the marketplaces of North Korea?
Re: Comments on: "The Haiti Earthquake: January 12th, 2010&
And a good thing too: many people rely upon it.
I haven't heard anything about that. Who has seen this? Have pictures been smuggled out, and if so are they on the Net? I've seen a lot of film smuggled out of there but I haven't seen what you describe, and I'm not clear as to its relevance to this thread either, but if your information is accurate it would be worth hearing regardless. Please expand on what you've said.
Re: Comments on: "The Haiti Earthquake: January 12th, 2010&
A couple of Channel Four documentaries you might like to watch David.
Children of the Secret State (2000)
Undercover in the Secret State (2005)
You will kindly note that humanitarian aid is not proportioned amongst the poor, but rather being channeled to the elite, the military, and the black market for sale to those who can afford it. There are many reports on the net of the goings on that I describe (I for one have no desire to find out if human flesh tastes like pork), and as more and more flee North Korea their stories tend to lend credence. At the same time however as part of the economic sanctions against North Korea, humanitarian aid to this country has tapered off. This in itself has the potential to sentence millions in that country to starvation and death. It is also worth noting here that aid workers have been expelled from North Korea on more than one occasion during the past decade.
Now it is not my intention to distract attention from or lessen the seriousness of the events in Haiti, The only thing I am trying to illustrate is the fact that such events are no more, and probably less important in the overall scheme of things than the longtime suffering of the poor on this planet. It all boils down to timescales. We are all in shock and horror when such events occur, but at the same time many who experience this shock and horror are desensitized to the fact that worldwide such suffering takes place daily, but develops in most cases over longer timescales.
Perhaps it's only my personal perception of things that annoys me. That being that it seems to me that the plight of the rest of the world's poor gets shoved onto the back burner when such events occur (as if the 14-17 thousand children (just children, no accounting for the adults who suffer the same fate) that will starve to death today, and tomorrow, and the day after that, and so on -- means absolutely nothing).
Re: Comments on: "The Haiti Earthquake: January 12th, 2010&
I must have watched them at the time, because I never miss programmes of that sort. I haven't explored the issue on the Net for two reasons: firstly it takes up a lot of time and gets in the way of my work; and secondly you don't know who to believe when you get information from that source. The situation is so bad that it isn't hard to imagine that human meat might be on the menu. All we can do is hope that ridiculous Thunderbirds puppet pops his clogs sooner rather than later so that his country might find a leader with more vision (and they'd certainly be hard pushed to find a worse one).
It makes me wonder if in this case it wouldn't be better to pull the plug and see if the whole state collapses, though China would probably be stupid enough to rescue them.
I've heard talk radio presenters going on and on about how disasters and famines don't matter because they're just part of nature. Fifty thousand, two hundred and fifty thousand, a million, a billion: what's the difference? The fact they don't get sacked on the spot suggests to me that they're speaking for a lot of people. Needless to say, they're the same ones who don't believe global warming's an issue.
I get more annoyed when it's stories about royalty or "celebrities" hogging the news, pushing real stories out of sight. We should be trying to set up an international health service for everyone on the planet so that people don't need to breed like rabbits just to guarantee that some of their children will survive. We simply don't have the resources to give nine billion people an adequate standard of living, and something's going to have to give big time when we hit the next serious food-supply wobble. Attempts to prevent this holocaust should be a major story in the news at least once a week, but months or even years can go by without it getting a mention anywhere. Our priorities are completely upside down.