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| News / World News |
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| Why Chile dodged Haiti-style ruin | | By admin |
| Sunday, February 28, 2010 15:55:16 |
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PORT-AU-PRINCE–The earthquake in Chile was far stronger than the one that struck Haiti last month – yet the death toll in this Caribbean nation is magnitudes higher.
The reasons are simple.
Chile is wealthier and infinitely better prepared, with strict building codes, robust emergency response and a long history of handling seismic catastrophes. No living Haitian had experienced a quake at home when the Jan. 12 disaster crumbled poorly constructed buildings.
And Chile was relatively lucky this time. Saturday's quake was centred offshore an estimated 34 kilometres underground in a relatively unpopulated area while Haiti's tectonic mayhem struck closer to the surface and right on the edge of Port-au-Prince.
Earthquakes don't kill – they don't create damage – if there's nothing to damage, said Eric Calais, a Purdue University geophysicist studying the Haiti quake.
The U.S. Geological Survey says eight Haitian cities and towns – including the capital of 3 million – suffered violent to ``extreme shaking in last month's 7-magnitude quake, which Haiti's government estimates killed some 220,000 people and left about 1.2 million homeless. Early reports show Chile's death toll appears to be in the hundreds.
No Chilean urban area suffered more than severe shaking Saturday in the 8.8-magnitude disaster. The quake was centred 325 kilometres away from the capital and largest city, Santiago.
In terms of energy released at the epicentre, said Calais, the Chilean quake was 500 times stronger. But energy dissipates rather quickly as distances grow from epicentres – and the ground beneath Port-au-Prince is less stable and shakes like jelly, says University of Miami geologist Tim Dixon.
Survivors of Haiti's quake described panic – much of it well founded as buildings imploded around them. Haitians were not schooled in how to react – by sheltering under tables and door frames, and away from glass windows.
Chileans, on the other hand, have homes and offices built to ride out quakes, their steel skeletons designed to sway with seismic waves rather than resist them.
When you look at the architecture in Chile you see buildings that have damage, but not the complete pancaking that you've got in Haiti, said Cameron Sinclair, executive director of Architecture for Humanity, a 10-year-old non-profit that helps rebuild after disasters.
Sinclair said he has architect colleagues in Chile who have built thousands of low-income housing structures to be earthquake resistant. In Haiti, by contrast, there is no building code.
On a per-capita basis, Chile has more world-renowned seismologists and earthquake engineers than anywhere else, said Brian Tucker, president of GeoHazards International, a non-profit organization based in Palo Alto, Calif.
Calais noted that frequent seismic activity is common to Chile, which experienced the strongest earthquake on record in 1960. Saturday's quake was the nation's third of over magnitude-8.7.
It's quite likely that every person there has felt a major earthquake in their lifetime, he said, whereas the last one to hit Port-au-Prince was 250 years ago.
source thestar.com |
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