http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsanim/world.php

World’s Deadliest Earthquakes January 23 1556 Central ChinaMost people lived in caves carved in soft rock, collapsed, killed 830,000

1976 Tangshan, China Killing 255,000

Contribution to the current homeless population in Haiti2 Million, lack of basic sanitation and potable water

Some so poor diet includes biscuits made of mud and salt that are baked in the sun, before the earthquake food riots were

common=geophagyhttp://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/02/19/dirt-poor-haitians-eat-cookies-made-of-mud/4120/

Haiti’s Natural Disaster History

• 4 hurricanes or tropical storms in 2008 killed hundreds

• Earthquake is the 15th natural disaster to strike since 2001

• 3,000 Haitians had died in natural disasters since 2000, hundreds of thousands displaced

• Located on a geological fault zone, susceptible to quakes

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34882819/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8456233.stm

Haiti Quake Facts• The epicentre's proximity to Port-au-Prince - 15km (10 miles) - and the

focus (or depth) of just 8km (5 miles) will have ensured the destructive forces were at their most intense

• "Closeness to the surface is a major factor contributing to the severity of ground shaking caused by an earthquake of any given magnitude," said Dr David Rothery, a planetary scientist with the Open University, UK.

• "Furthermore, shaking tends to be greatest directly above the source. In this case the epicentre was only 15 km from the centre of the capital, Port au Prince, which therefore suffered very heavily."

• A series of strong aftershocks - more than 10 larger than Magnitude 5.0 - will have compounded the devastation.

• In 1946, a M8.1 quake hit the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola, and produced a tsunami that killed almost 2,000 people.

• The last major earthquake in this part of Haiti was 150 years ago.

• The greater geological setting is the northern boundary between the Caribbean and North America tectonic plates where vast slabs of the Earth's surface grind past each other in a horizontal motion.

• The Caribbean plate appears to shift eastward with respect to the North America plate by about 20mm per year.

• In the region where this quake occurred, this motion is accommodated across a number of strike-slip faults, the two main ones in Haiti being the Septentrional fault in the north and the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault in the south.

• Seismic data suggests Tuesday's quake was on the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault.

• "It's been locked solid for about the last 250 years," said Dr Roger Musson from the British Geological Survey (BGS).

• "It's been gathering stress all that time as the plates move past each other, and it was really just a matter of time before it released all that energy. The question was going to be whether it would release it all at once or in a series of smaller earthquakes," he told BBC News.

Why doesn’t an earthquake in an MDC cause as much devastation?

• The buildings in the quake zones of major industrialised nations sit on damping systems that allow them to ride out tremors that not only shake them back and forth but also twist them in the same movement.

Haiti Earthquake: The Human Geography AspectTent City in Port-au-Prince

Characteristics of Refugees• -usually no identification• -take with them only what they can carry on

their person• -flee on foot, wagon, boatWhat is the international U.N. definition of a

refugee?What is the international U.N. definition of an

IDP?Currently, which identification would you give

most of the homeless Haitians?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/35022139#34982071

Diseases after a natural catastrophe?Disease minimal due to corpses

What causes post-hazard diseases?• Diseases that are endemic to the

area• Availability of clean water• Availability of sanitation and

latrines• Underlying nutritional status• Immunization coverage• Degree of access to health care• Effective triage• Living conditions of population

affected• Population Density of the

affected area

Lack of access to safe water:-Diarrhea due to unsafe water

and lack of sanitation-Hepatitis E-endemic areas(travel the fecal-oral route)Clustering of people can speed

contagious diffusion of -measles-meningitis-Acute respiratory infectionsindoor cooking using an open

flame, crowding, poor nutrition

-tetanus from wounds

Dengue• -breeding sites like

artificial containers caused by disruption of water supply

• -disruption of solid waste disposal

• -increased exposure to mosquitoes by sleeping outside

• -changes in the habitat that promotes mosquito breeding

Dengue

http://doctorswithoutborders.org/news/article.cfm?id=4190&cat=video&ref=home-center-relatedlink

“Should I stay or should I go now?”

http://doctorswithoutborders.org/events/refugeecamp/guide/index.cfm

Government has offered transportation out of Port-au-

Prince

• -500,000 in tent cities near Port-au-Prince

• -50,000 have taken the government’s offer to go to the countryside but medical care will be difficult to find http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8475767.stm

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8475733.stm

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba less than 200 miles from Haiti

-Used for airlifting supplies by the U.S. military directly to Haiti or to military ships off the coast

-Erecting 100 tents that hold 10 people each as a holding area for detaining Haitians that fled to sea and for a possible mass migration

-planning for a possible 150 bed mobile hospital

-this area has the capacity to hold 13,000 people

-area is separated by 2 ½ miles of water from the detention center