Natural Disasters

Jessica Wise
Features Editor

If you have turned on the news for even fifteen minutes in the last week, one might know that there has been several potentially dangerous earthquakes. From the twenty-sixth of February to the twenty-eighth, there has been eleven earthquakes starting at a magnitude of 6.0 all the way up to an 8.8. But as we sow with the huge earthquake in Chile compared to the one in Haiti, it defiantly helps to be prepared.
The quake in Chile hit a magnitude of 8.8, and was reported to have killed around 700 people, 541 of the 700 deaths were in Maule when a sewer system collapsed. Another 64 deaths occurred in Bio Bio because they did not have clean drinking water. It was said to be 501 times stronger than the one in Haiti. There was not as much damage done because Chile, unlike Haiti has very strict building codes, “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.
On January 12, 2010 the earthquake hit Haiti with great force, killing around 250,000 people. The damage was expected to cost between $7.2 billion to $13.2 billon. Not only did they lose homes, but also schools, a prison, and hospitals; the magnitude of this quake was a 7.0.
It seems weird to think that though the quake in Chile was so much bigger than the one in Haiti that the damage is far less. How is it even possible? Chile is in the “ring of fire” the quake zone, where the largest on record hit in 1960 with a magnitude of 9.5. When you live somewhere that is called the ring of fire you better be prepared for disaster. “It is a part of a natural cycle,” says Mr. Petry.
On March 4 yet another quake hit, but this time it hit Taiwan. With a magnitude of 6.4 on the Richter scale. There were no immediate reports of any deaths, but at least 64 injuries. All of these earthquakes seem to be hitting all at the same time, but they are not in connection with each other, "It's coincidental. These quakes are not connected," said geophysicist Don Blakeman at the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center.
"We constantly have quakes going off. It takes one big damaging earthquake to get people's attention and then they start noticing all the quakes."
“Although it is a tragedy that is just how our planet works,” states science teacher Ms. Rayes.
If one asks anyone who knows anything about science they will all say the same thing when it comes to why these earthquakes are accruing, the plate tectonic theory. This theory states that the top layer of the earth is made up of plates that move, which is the result of volcanoes, earthquakes and mountains. It is also the reason why we no longer have one giant supercontinent, also known as Pangaea.