A split building in Concepcion, Chile
Two large Earthquakes have struck the Earth since the beginning of the new year. Many Earthquakes occur every day, but most of them cannot be felt. First in Haiti and then in Chile, residents have very much felt the power of Mother Nature.Saturday morning an 8.8 magnitude on the Richter scale quake shook Chile, followed by a tsunami which did not turn our to be destructive. This earthquake was more than 500 times stronger than the 7.0 Earthquake in Haiti. Yet the damage is much less than that of Haiti, and Chile's death toll is exponentially smaller. So far there have been around 400 deaths in Chile, and over 200,000 in Haiti. So then you might ask, Why was the damage so much greater in Haiti if the Earthquake was weaker?
Chili was prepared. The government has mandated building earthquake proof structures. These buildings use more flexible materials such as rubber that will bend and sway during an earthquake instead of cracking and breaking. This building was required because Chile knew of the destruction that could be caused. In 1960, the largest earthquake known to man struck Chile, a 9.5 magnitude.
Also, Haiti was not prepared. The infrastructure there is very weak, and the economy very poor. Enough money was not available to build earthquake resistant buildings. So then, the lesson to learn from this is: preparing pays off, the danger of nature cannot be ignored.
More on the Chilean Earthquake
You have to take into consideration that Chile was better prepared because it is a more stable country, with more money and resources to respond to such an event. It also had the knowledge and experience from dealing with the biggest earthquake known to man. Haiti simply didn't have the experience nor the resources to deal with the earthquake properly seemingly confirming the Barry Schwartz TED talk point that a wise person (country in this case) is made not born.
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