Compare And Contrast Earthquake And Haiti Earthquake

As a member of the government Disaster Management Task Force, a geographical report has been required to be written which analyses the impact of two natural disasters and evaluates which was the most severe. The two chosen natural disasters includes the 2011 Japanese tsunami/earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
Disaster 1 – Japanese Tsunami and Earthquake
On Friday the 11th of March 2011, a magnitude 9.0 Earthquake struck coastal waters, along a subduction zone, surrounding Japanese islands. At the time of the Earthquake, no one expected what was about to occur, one of the most devastating tsunamis to have ever hit Japan. Earthquakes are caused by forces deep within the Earth when two blocks of the earth suddenly slip past one another.
This causes a large volume of water to be pushed to the surface, creating waves. These waves are the tsunami. As a result of the Japanese tsunami, there were many social, economic and environmental impacts, which severely disrupted normal human activities. Social impacts from this disaster include that 18,000 people were killed, with most drowning from the tsunami, 590,000 people, many of whom have lost their homes, are now being forced to live in temporary shelters due to houses being destroyed and that 27074 people were injured. Also, 210,000 people were evacuated from the area around the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which suffered an explosion in a reactor building, causing dangerous radiation levels. This radiation from the nuclear power plant Fukushima is still causing environmental and social problems today. As a result of these social impacts, the local and national economies were affected in 2 main ways:
• The Immediate damage cost was between $100-$235 billion, and would take five years to rebuild
• Japan's nuclear industry supplied a third of the country's electricity. In total, 11 of Japan's 50 nuclear reactors were closed immediately following the earthquake. The capacity to produce electricity was reduced by as much as 40%. This led to record trade deficits
Disaster 2 – Haiti Earthquake
The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 earthquake, which occurred on Tuesday the 12th of January in Leogane,16 kms away from Haiti’s capital, Port Au Prince.
This Earthquake, similar to disaster 1, appeared unexpectedly, leaving residents/public with no time to react. As mentioned earlier in the report, Earthquakes are caused by 2 plates slipping past one another, causing shakes on the Earth’s surface. However, this Earthquake occurred on different plates; the Caribbean Plate and the North American Plate. According to official estimates, 316,000 people were killed, 300,000 were injured, 1.3 million were displaced/homeless, 97,294 houses destroyed and 188,383 damaged in the Port-au-Prince area and in much of southern Haiti. A lot of these deaths were also caused by the outbreak of the disease, Cholera, where faeces came in contact with drinking water. This disease had 664 282 cases, with 8 173 of these eventually dying. After the Earthquake had occurred, the amount of orphans in Haiti dramatically increased as many children had lost their parents from collapsed buildings and infrastructure such as 4 992 schools (23% of Haiti’s school). In terms of economic impacts, the total damages of this tragedy have reached an estimated total of $7.8 billion solidifying the severity of the earthquake. Another huge impact on the local and national economy was the rebuilding of housing and
infrastructure.
Overall, it is clear that both of these disasters have caused significant widespread damage socially, economically and environmentally, and are still causing problems in today’s society. However, as there is no price on lives and they can’t be replaced, the Government Disaster Management Task force has decided that the Haiti Earthquake was the most severe out of the 2 disasters, due to having more social, economic and environmental impacts.
In terms of social impacts, the Haiti Earthquake resulted in a significantly larger amount of deaths, injuries and people displaced which can be seen in the Evaluation table whereas the Japanese earthquake/tsunami only caused 18 000 deaths, 590 000 people homeless and 27074 injuries. The Haiti Earthquake also resulted in an increased amount of orphans as many of the Haitian children lost the parents in the rubble.
Economically, the Japanese Earthquake caused severe disruptions to the local and national economies, with an immediate damage cost of $100-$235 billion (estimated), compared to the damage cost of Haiti’s earthquake being an estimated $7.8 billion. Japan’s nuclear industry, which supplies a third of the country’s electricity, caused record trade deficits. Also, a large amount of this cost was the rebuilding of housing and infrastructure. Environmental impacts for both disasters were relatively similar to each other. Some of these impacts include mass movements (rockfalls and landslides), ground cracks, decreased drinking water supplies, soil erosion and no fertile land for farming.