How will the damage from the earthquake in Chile probably compare to the damage from the earthquake in Haiti?

Well as far as damage casusing power is concerned, Chile's earthquake was scaled at 8.8 in magnitude, while the earthquake that hit Haiti last month was only 7.0. On top of that the Jessica Sigala, a geophysicists with the US Geological Survey, said that the Chile quake was very shallow, in that it happened right beneath the land surface and was much harder felt.

With all that known people might think that Chile's quake would cause more damage; but actually the Chili's government has preperations and precautions for disaters like this, unlike the Haitian government. So, while the Chile earthquake itself was more powerful, property damage and death toll wise it won't be as damaging as the one that hit Haiti.

The damage seems to be about the same, but the affected area in Chile is substantially larger. This is because while the earthquake in Chile was 1,000 times stronger, Chile has good (but not great) seismic building codes. Whereas Haiti is the most corrupt nation in the western hemisphere, and what few building codes exist are ignored. Also much of Port-au-Prince is built on soft alluvial soil, which basically turns into Jell-o in a quake.

And while the official death toll in Chile right now is less than 200, unofficially they are expecting it to go well into the thousands.

I'm chilean and I can say that Haiti's was worse, not because of the intensity, because our earthquake was much stronger, but because they're not used to quakes so they weren't prepared. Know if you wanna compare the damage that it caused the world (and not just the countries) I'd say the Chile's was worse since the earthquake moved the earth off its axis by about 3 inches.

Chile has precautions haiti didn't. Chile is also very vulnerable much like haiti except with stronger buildings and more Resistance. Chile has to also watch out for a Tsunami and after shocks. But i do not think the death toll with even flinch Haiti's 1000s of deaths.

Anderson Cooper 360 had a section in this this evening and there are in maximum cases 2 reasons: a million) the epicenter of the Chilean earthquake became into farther out interior the water, and additionally lots deeper, so it became into farther removed from a heavily populated section. It did extreme injury to thought, nonetheless, Chile's 2nd-best city. The Haitian earthquake hit basically precise in Port-au-Prince, an exceptionally unfavourable and heavily populated section, and 2) the construction code in Chile is stricter and homes are built factoring in earthquakes as a threat. there have been varied earthquakes in Chile; in fact, they sustained the biggest earthquake on checklist in 1960, so they are greater arranged for this way of disaster.

the damage and haiti was much worse. mainly because chile has always expected earthquakes, and they have better building codes. where as, haiti has none. so clearly, when a earthquake hit haiti, their buildings were taken out easily.... but when it happens to chile due to there better building codes, they wont collapse. unless its the older buildings from the 1800's or something.. plus, haitis population per square km was about 70,000... and chiles was only 24,000...

Property damage in Chile will probably be 1%-3% of that in Haiti. Loss of life will probably be 0.4-0.5% of that in Haiti

BTW MSNBC says death toll is now about 254...

Plz help the survivors of the chile earthquake and Hawaii tsunami.

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