Preview

Seismic Hazards In Haiti

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
426 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Seismic Hazards In Haiti
Seismic hazards have many different impacts around the world. An earthquake took place in Haiti 2010 and it was measured 7 on the Richter scale. The main hazard was the seismic waves caused by shifting rocks in an earthquake. There are two main types of waves, P waves and S waves. P waves travel through solids and liquids around 6-7 km/h and parallel through the rocks. S ways travel side ways at 2.5-4km/h and can only get through solids. Both waves can have a big impact on the community, a lot of buildings will collapse and as a result people will be injured and infrastructures will be damaged. Over 3.5 million people were affected by the earthquake, with 220000 fatalities and over 300000 people injured as a result of poorly constructed houses …show more content…
This is caused by shallow-focus underwater earthquake; volcanic eruption and large land slide into the sea. The displacement of the water becomes the giant sea wave and they normally have a long wavelength over 100m and low wave height when they are still in the open ocean. When it approaches shallower water near the shoreline the speed and the height increases and it can reach 700km/h. tsunami is one of the most deadly seismic hazards can cause significant damage to buildings and infrastructure. On March 11, 2011, a magnitude-9 earthquake shook northeastern Japan, unleashing a savage tsunami. It killed over 15000 people and the total cost of the disaster was over $300billion and Japan is still recovering today.

Over all, tsunami has the greatest impact due to the long-term damage the people would have to face. For example in Sendai leaking from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant caused the area around it to be closed for a longtime for it to be safe to enter. Japan relies on nuclear power, and many of the country's nuclear reactors remain closed because of stricter seismic safety standards since the earthquake. Four years after the quake, about 230,000 people who lost their homes were still living in temporary

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Tomtheboss

    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Search and rescue teams arriving in Japans hardest hit areas are so far finding very few survivors, after last weeks devastating earthquake. The official number of deaths has climbed above 1,800, but officials fear the eventual number may exceed 10,000 as thousands of bodies are now being discovered on remote beaches. In the days since the earthquake, Japan has experienced an additional 403 aftershocks – 32 of them with a magnitude greater than 6.0, Fire crews, rescue teams, and volunteers are now digging through the wreckage left by the tsunami, as evacuation efforts continue around the fukushima, daiichi Nuclear Power Station and engineers work to regain control of the failing reactors.…

    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    While both the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake of Northern California, and the 2010 earthquake that devastated Port au Prince, and surrounding areas in Haiti, were very similar in magnitude (6.9 California, and 7.0 in Haiti), there is great contrast in the number of lives lost due to these natural disasters, with 63 dead in Santa Cruz county, and an estimated 220,000 lives lost in Haiti. From a geographical standpoint, the town of Léogâne was at the epicenter, of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake, the United Nations claims that this was “the worst affected area” with notable damage occurring to approximately 90% of the buildings in the area, and over 20,000 lives lost. (Millar, 2010). According to the Medical Examiners and Coroners investigating the earthquake…

    • 280 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    One physical factor of an earthquake is the possibility of lowland coastal areas being open to tsunami threats. The Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004, claimed 300,000 people due to the earthquake of magnitude 9.0 triggering a slip in the…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    • 2010 Haiti earthquake (12 January):. The epicentre of this magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake was near Léogâne, approximately 25 km (16 miles) west of Port-au-Prince.[6][7] at a depth of 13 km (8.1 miles). The United States Geological Survey recorded a…

    • 1808 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    January 12th 2010 4:53PM, the phone rang….Hispaniola whom which I call Haiti was bawling. Her heart, Port-au-prince, was completely ruined, she bleed and bleed and heard the bones intensively crashing brutally against each other until they converted into ashes. Her green dress metamorphosed into a white costume, her veins and arteries were ripped… she had no shelter. Once she realized that her brain was damaged, a depression impulsively engulfed her body and left her with nothing more than a reprieving sound that whispers” Help”. For this cause, I played a concrete role in the reconstruction of Haiti by founding an school organization for aiding intentions, educating and helping the Haitians Students survivors in the US, and providing assistance…

    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    President Obama promised that Haiti would have the “unwavering support” of the United States. Mr. Obama said that the United States aid agencies were moving swiftly to get help to Haiti and that search-and-rescue teams were en route. He described the reports of destruction as “truly heart-wrenching,” made more cruel given Haiti’s long-troubled circumstances. “This is a time when we are reminded of the common humanity that we all share,” Mr. Obama said. (Romero, 2010).…

    • 3574 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    A hazard can best be defined as a 'situation that poses a level of threat to life, health, property or the environment.' The overall impact of earthquakes as a natural hazard varies greatly from one place and timeframe to another. As do the types of hazards, which are categorised into primary and secondary. Primary hazards are created by the direct seismic energy of an earthquake; this could include liquefaction, slope failure and tsunamis. These primary hazards can in turn trigger secondary hazards such as floods, fires, disease and destabilisation of infrastructure. A number of factors play a part in determining the severity of these hazards.…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hawaii Beach Observation

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The effects of tsunami include damage of properties, the death of humans, serious flooding and diseases.…

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Haiti Earthquake

    • 207 Words
    • 1 Page

    Haiti is located in Hispaniola in the Caribbean. Hispaniola, which consists of two countries Dominican Republic and Haiti itself. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and is the 145th poorest country in the world. 80% of its 9.7 million people live below the poverty line. The Haitian EARTHQUAKE occurred on the 12th January 2010 ; it left the country with devastation.…

    • 207 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Earthquakes In Haiti

    • 337 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Haiti is the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere, and amongst the poorest in the world. With that being said, when an earthquake happened just kilometres away from Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince, the country was hardly prepared (Fierro & Perry, n.d.). Haiti has overcome various natural disasters, including hurricanes, tsunamis, floods, landslides, and other tropical storms. Haitians expect these natural hazards to occur, due to past events and the location of the country making it inevitable. They try their best to prepare for mother nature, but there is only so much they can do given their lack of resources. Earthquakes however, are not something that is expected nor is it common in Haiti. The last major earthquake that…

    • 337 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The last major earthquake to hit Haiti prior to the 2010 was in 1984. On the 12th of January 2010 the small Caribbean country of Haiti was hit by a catastrophic earthquake of 7.0 magnitude. The earthquake struck on the afternoon of the 12th of January at 4:57pm and hit south-west of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince killing 316,000 and affecting millions of residents. 1.5 million people were displaced and approximately 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings were severely damaged. The first quake registered a 7.0 on the Richter scale and shortly after was followed by two aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5. The aftershocks continued numerous days after the initial quake, one hitting on the 20th of January at the town…

    • 258 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The 2011 Tohoku Pacific Coast Earthquake or more commonly referred as the ‘3/11’ disaster; first began as an undersea earthquake, off the coast of Miyagi prefecture. Then, the submarine earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0, transformed to a 15-meter tsunami waves (Akira, 2013). In the blink of an eye, the east coast of Japan, especially Sendai was engulfed by the massive tsunami waves, and led to the nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi and the Fukushima Daiini nuclear power plants.…

    • 495 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    PLATE PAPER

    • 842 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Another main hazard is flooding, to explain a little better earthquakes can cause breaks in dams and levees. Causing the rivers to flood the reservoir, then the water can only move into the rest of the land. This will cause buildings, roadways, etc. to be destroyed or swept away, also people drowning. Earthquakes also can cause Submarine earthquake. They travel across the ocean floor at a high rate of speed have been known to cause Tsunamis. In 1964 the Alaskan earthquake caused damage to many regions in California, though not to Los Angeles at that time. Los Angeles is considered a tsunami…

    • 842 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    An earthquake of magnitude 9.0 and a tsunami hit the pacific coast of northern Japan on March 11, 2011. It will have a significant negative impact on the Japanese economy now and will continue to affects Japan in the future. The earthquake also caused a high tsunami which breached the safety of nuclear plants in Fukushima prefecture. What is worse, though, is it caused a partial meltdown, and now Japanese citizens not only suffered by damage of earthquake itself but also the dangerous level of radiation from the plants. On June 10th 2013, a Japanese National Police Agency announced there were 15,883 confirmed deaths, 6,145 injured, and 2,671 people missing, as well as 126,458 buildings totally collapsed, with a further…

    • 1714 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    earthquakes

    • 1383 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Thesis: Earthquakes have been a natural part of Earth for many years and are caused by a shift in the Earth’s tectonic plates. Tectonic plates shift when two separated pieces of Earth’s crust push together because of the pressure of the hot air below them pushing up on the plates from the heat of the Earth’s core. This pressure must be released somehow, so when the pressure becomes too great for the plates to withstand, one part of a plate gives way to the pressure by rising above the other part of the tectonic plate. This then causes the top plate to overlap and collide with the other plate. This collision causes a massive shake on Earth, which we know most commonly as an earthquake, or seismic activity. When tectonic plates that are not submerged underwater shift, it causes an earthquake on land. When tectonic plates that are submerged underwater by a large lake or an ocean shift, it creates a tsunami. These two reactions can cause different sizes of disaster. The sum of the damage created by an earthquake is measured on the Richter scale, where a 1.0 earthquake has done the least amount of damage, and a 10.0 earthquake has done the most amount of damage. A 10.0 earthquake has never been recorded, as according to http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Whatareearthquakesmeasuredby . The sum of the damage done by a tsunami is measured by a TSUNAMETER, which was developed by the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, as according to http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Howcantsunamisbemeasured&altQ=Whataretsunamismeasuredby&isLookUp=1#Q=what%20are%20tsunamis%20measured%20by . Tsunamis are ranked on a scale of 1.0 to 10.0, just like earthquakes. According to http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Whatisthescalefortsunamis , though, a tsunami can only be caused by a 6.5 seismic movement on the Richter scale. My goal in writing this report is to conclude if we should or should not geothermal drill into the Earth to receive power to our power grids.…

    • 1383 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays