...The earthquake that took place in Haiti on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 was a devastating and tragic natural disaster. It was located at 18.457°N latitude and 72.533°W longitude ("USGS- Science for a Changing World"). The depth of the earthquake was 13 kilometers, or 8.1 miles in distance into the ground ("USGS- Science for a Changing World"). This earthquake was not very deep, and fell under the category of a shallow earthquake, which can occur anywhere from 0-70 km from the surface of the earth. In UTC time, this earthquake occurred at 21:53:10, which is the equivalent of 4:53:10 PM local time in Haiti ("USGS- Science for a Changing World"). The main shock of the Haiti earthquake was a magnitude of 7.0 on the Richter scale, which means that a large amount of damage would be expected near the epicenter ("2010 Haiti Earthquake"). According to our notes, earthquakes with this magnitude only occur about 20 times per year. The strike-slip fault system located in the region Haiti is in contains two branches: the Septentrional-Oriente fault in the north and the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault in the south. Both the location and orientation of the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault suggest that the January 2010 quake was caused by its rupturing. The cause of this was that the fault had been locked for 250 years, gathering stress. The rupture was about 60 kilometers long ("2010 Haiti Earthquake"). According to Wikipedia, the earthquake occurred in the vicinity of the northern boundary...
Words: 1286 - Pages: 6
...2010 Haiti Earthquake Time and location of the event. There was an earthquake in Haiti- port au prince on the 12 January 2010, the time was 21:53 the magnitude was 7.0. The depth was 12 kmw (8.1 miles) three million people were affected by the earthquake and an estimated 316000 died and 300,000 mad injured and 1,000,000 made homeless by the earthquake. People automatically thought there was going to be a tsunami but it was cancelled quickly The location and a map The location of the earthquake was in Haiti in port au price beside the Dominican Republic and next to Cuba on the Caribbean plate. The most affected area was port au price. How earthquakes happen An earthquake is formed when two plates rub against each other for a long period of time the place that is most affected is were the earthquake actually happened and is called the epicentre. Earthquakes happen along the plate edges. Britain does not have big earthquakes because they are in the centre of the Eurasian plate. An explanation of what happened On the 12 January 2010 there was a massive earthquake killing millions of people. Haiti was already a poor country with lots of diseases and a messed up economy. When the earthquake happened, the damaged killed thousands of people and buildings even the president’s palace. The earthquake also made the economy more badly and desperately needed money. The magnitude of the earthquake was 7.0. 300.000 were injured and 1,000,000 people out of 10 million left...
Words: 672 - Pages: 3
...Haiti is a country located in the Caribbean Sea on the island of Hispaniola. It shares its landmass with the Dominican Republic, Haiti only occupies one third of the more than 29,000 square miles of the entire island. Haiti was once a very wealthy nation. This wealth was due to forestry and sugar-related industries. It has since become the poorest country in the western hemisphere caused by mass deforestation and soil erosion from over cultivation, along with natural disasters such as tropical storms, hurricanes and earthquakes. I’m sure most people remember the earthquake in 2010 that decimated the capital city of Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area. Haiti’s already frail economy was brought to its knees, leading to further degradation...
Words: 699 - Pages: 3
...The early history of Haiti is tragic and unique. Throughout history, this small country has suffered from natural disasters, poverty, racial discrimination, lack of economic resources, and political instability. Haiti is located in the Caribbean next to the Dominican Republic, on Enriquillo–Plantain Garden fault zone, as well as the area’s largest hurricane track, bringing it bad luck geographically (Henley). On January 1, 1804, Haiti declared independence from France, and in 1805, Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared himself the Emperor of Haiti. Dessalines was an important military leader who worked with Toussaint L'Ouverture and gave the country of Haiti its name. Toussaint L'Ouverture was one of the main leaders of the Haitian independence movement during the French Revolution (Jean-Jacques Dessalines). Since then, Haiti’s government has become more democratic and is currently run by Prime Minister, Evans Paul....
Words: 769 - Pages: 4
...The purposes of government does not improve the people's lives in Haiti. Evidence of to is being show with poor economic decisions, not maintaining social order and not providing good public services. Haitians had faced a devastation of an earthquake in 2010 which has changed the lives of many for the worse. The reasons are that people became homeless, buildings were destroyed, and the government falling apart. First, Haiti is not meeting the purposes of government since poor decisions are being made economically. This is shown statistically since more than 80 percent of the population are living in poverty and in extremely overcrowded houses that are too small. Also, most people in Haiti are living on less than two dollars a day with...
Words: 393 - Pages: 2
...In 1991, Haiti faced a coup by military authorities against its democratically elected President Aristide. The election had been supported by the United Nations to testify of its smooth functioning (United Nations, n.d.). This military coup led to three years of economic collapse and repressions perpetrated by the new regime. The importance of the number of migrants who were arriving in the United States persuaded the United Nations to intervene in Haiti through a peacekeeping mission in 1994 (Vree &Satake, n.d.). The UN intervention allowed a come back of the former elected representatives but it was the former Prime minister who became President, Rene Preval. This new election led to six years of economic growth, then, Haiti began to face a period of recession. In the same time, Mr...
Words: 2545 - Pages: 11
...One of the most disastrous earthquakes to hit this planet was the Haiti earthquake. In the afternoon of January 12, 2010, this earthquake -with a magnitude of 7.0- hit the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic in Central America. Although the damages were mostly found in Haiti, the people in the Dominican Republic experienced similar results. While many calculations disagree with each other, at least a whopping 150,000 people lost their lives in this unfortunate event, while more than ten times that number lost their homes and properties to be left on the streets, or what has remained of them. This huge earthquake covered the territory of almost ⅔ of the country and the western third of the island, which originated about 25 kilometers...
Words: 346 - Pages: 2
...Haiti Earthquake of 2010– Vulnerabilities and Resiliency On the 12th of January in 2010 at 4.53 pm Haiti was struck by a massive earthquake that is considered as one of the deadliest earthquakes in the western hemisphere in a century (Chinn, 2011). According to The Haiti Earthquake (2013) it killed 220.000 people, injured 250.000 people and left more than a million homeless. The earthquakes’ characteristics: There are several different aspects of Haiti earthquake that amplified its impact. First of all, Haiti is located on the edge of the Caribbean plate that crushes into the Atlantic plate (The Haiti Earthquake, 2013). This area is known for its tectonic activities as the plates are constantly moving and creating friction between them,...
Words: 1662 - Pages: 7
...Tectonic Hazards: Earthquakes Earthquakes are usually caused when rock underground suddenly breaks along a fault. This sudden release of energy causes the seismic waves that make the ground shake. When two blocks of rock or two plates are rubbing against each other, they stick a little. They don't just slide smoothly; the rocks catch on each other. The rocks are still pushing against each other, but not moving. After a while, the rocks break because of all the pressure that's built up. When the rocks break, the earthquake occurs. During the earthquake and afterward, the plates or blocks of rock start moving, and they continue to move until they get stuck again. The spot underground where the rock breaks is called the focus of the earthquake. The place right above the focus (on top of the ground) is called the epicentre of the earthquake.  Haiti Earthquake: What? A 7.0 magnitude earthquake When?12th January 2010 at 16.53 local time (21.53 GMT). Where?The earthquake occurred 18.457°N, 72.533°W. The focus of the earthquake was 13km (8.1 miles) below the surface of the earth. The short term effects of the Haiti earthquake are· Buildings being destroyed, roads and docks. Making it difficult to get aid to the people who need it. Example food, clean drinking water, clothes, cooking utensils, temporally shelters and most importantly drugs and medicines. · Without clean drinking water and dead bodies rotting in the hot sun the risk of life threatening diseases...
Words: 502 - Pages: 3
...While scientists initially speculated that the cause of the disaster was the movement of the Caribbean tectonic plate eastward along the EPG strike-slip fault system (which is, in case you didn’t know, a fault in which rock strata are displaced mainly in a horizontal direction, parallel to the line of the fault,) however, when no surface deformation was formed, scientists found that the earthquake was actually caused by contractional deformation along the Léogâne fault. Make sure you have maps indicating where in the world Haiti is, and where this fault is in relation to Haiti. The tremor was shallow, occurring at a depth of 13km, which increased the intensity of the Earthquake. Apart from the obvious environmental impacts that come with...
Words: 368 - Pages: 2
...falling from our shelves. My siblings, aged 10 and 7 began to cry as the ground moved. Soon, the whole house was swaying side to side. We all ran outside and we could hear screams everywhere. We ran past debris from our neighbors' homes. The effects of the earthquake that occurred was a sensation that I have never been able to properly describe. I felt like I was running faster than I ever have in my life, but when I looked around me, I saw things moving in slow motion. We could not contact our parents, and none of our neighbors knew where they were. We waited for them on the street outside of our house. Hours went by, and as it became dark, my father returned. A few hours later, my mom followed. My dad had to abandon his car on the side of the road and walk home because the streets were blocked with rubble and dead bodies. My mom's job site was also destroyed, and a wall had fallen on her car. She walked barefooted all the way to the house wondering if we were okay . She has always said that was the scariest time of her life. Still, in the end, we were luckier than most; we survived....
Words: 549 - Pages: 3
...Haiti earthquake of 2010 was the “perfect disaster”. To what extent is this statement true? Haiti, one of the anomalies in the Northern Hemisphere, being that it is amongst the world’s poorest countries. Having 32% of its GDP relying on remittances is just an indicator of the dire situation Haiti has struggled to deal with. On a scale on 1 to 10, when 10 is the perfect disaster the 2010 earthquake in Haiti would easily rate 9.9. Its dire economic situation along with decades of government mismanagement and its precarious geographic location all adds to Haiti being a perfect disaster. A perfect disaster criterion is that the preconditions of the country were dismal including an unstable government and an ailing economic situation, a large ratio of humans were killed, and on top of that the post-disaster response would be slow and inadequate leading to the country not being able to recover quickly or at all. Before the 2010 earthquake Haiti had a bad reputation for corruption, in 2008 Haiti was ranked 4th most corrupt country in the world. Due to the corruption, the little building codes Haiti had were not correctly enforced because of fraudulent officials being paid off with bribes, enabling construction workers to cut corners creating unstable buildings with no earthquake resistance. This meets the criteria of a perfect disaster by having dismal preconditions with corruption integrated with the way of life. As any other typical LEDC, Haiti had very poor urban planning largely...
Words: 1447 - Pages: 6
...as humans have clashes with the earth. But in the end the earth always finds a way to disturb the human civilization . The people of Haiti have been the victims of many attacks by the earth has to throw at the people of Haiti. The island of Haiti have been hit with the waves from the Caribbean sea and the North Atlantic ocean have both pounded the sides of Haiti like balls of fist. The skys look deadly because of the grey dullness that it suspends from it. We as human beings have been taught to dig ourselves out of any trouble we have been in. Even though the world is rough to us, we have to just take the punishment that it gives us and learn from our mistakes. Haiti has been plagued with many disasters. Those storms have been the stepping stones for the Haitian people to grow and give them time to get things squared away. The people of Haiti have grown in depths with the way they have had to...
Words: 472 - Pages: 2
...the way the United States have been running things now with a mixed economic systems does work best for everyone. Using both economic systems gives everyone a role to play. Businesses and individual’s work as the capitalist system while the government works as the socialist and communist systems. Socialist System Better or Worst A socialist system might be the best in responding to the needs of people struck by an emergency situation. The socialist system is the government largely making the decision for the people. For example, the earthquake in Haiti in January of 2010 the Haitian government crumbled under the devastation, lack of funds, and more. The United States gladly stepped in to lend a helping hand and made sure to go into response and recovery mode as soon as possible. On the White Houses’ website, the Office of the Press Secretary (2010), went into great detail to what measures the United States government was taking to help Haiti. According to the article, the United States...
Words: 676 - Pages: 3
...ownership from the government. This is part of the reason why the US is considered to be capitalist. The economic system of a country can determine how its government and citizens handle varying situations. We will discuss with economic system might be best for handling an epic crisis, how a socialistic system could have been the best for dealing with the earthquake in Haiti and why the cost of heating our homes goes up at certain times of the year. The economic system best suited for handling an epic crisis might be socialism. Socialism is the ownership of resources primarily by the government but also involves the public. This economic system is best because the government will have already planned for anything to come. It services the needs of the people not for profit or control. If a flood or any other disaster where to happen, the citizens and the government would ensure the necessary aid and supply will be produced and distributed to all those in need. This is also a reason why the socialism economic system would have been best fit for the earthquake that hit Haiti. In 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti and sent shockwaves through the country’s capital of Port-au-Prince followed by 2 aftershocks. Haiti’s buildings were poorly maintained and not up to standard, so when the...
Words: 986 - Pages: 4
