Devastating Earthquake in Haiti - Are earthquakes getting worse??
By Tallygirl09
@Tallygirl09 (1380)
United States
January 14, 2010 6:07pm CST
I was just reading about the devastating earthquake in Haiti and it's shocking to hear how many or dead and missing. Seems to me that the number of earthquakes around the world are getting more frequent and more powerful. What do you think? Maybe it's just that the news coverage is so much better than it used to be but my goodness it seems to be getting harder to find a relatively safe place to live. I never heard of earthquakes hitting Haiti before,,,how about you?
1 response
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
15 Jan 10
Haiti is certainly not an earthquake-free zone. One of the largest recorded earthquakes ever was in 1946 on the island of Hispaniola. It was an 8.1-magnitude temblor that produced a tsunami and killed 1,790 people. Centered in the Dominican Republic, it extended into Haiti. It is unfortunate that this one, only a few hundred miles away, happened to be centred on Port-au-Prince.
Haiti is, of course, very subject to hurricanes as well. Here is a list of disasters to have affected Haiti in the 20th and 21st centuries alone: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/haiti/6978919/Haiti-earthquake-history-of-natural-disasters-to-hit-the-country.html
@Tallygirl09 (1380)
• United States
15 Jan 10
Wow!! How very knowledgeable you are! I have friend from Haiti so sent several e-mails to see what family they might have still had there and if they have been in contact at all. But I imagine that it will be some time before they know for sure. One of my dearest Haitian Friends called me that she doesn't have any family there but does have friends so I chatted with her abit to do what I could to comfort her just somewhat. I know that the US already has aid en route and I am sure that others will come to help too. I have added the dear people to my prayers!
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
15 Jan 10
To tell the truth, I merely have the ability to do research on the Internet. I knew very little about Haiti when the news broke (I didn't even know where it was on the atlas) but I did some searching and found that it's in the Gulf of Mexico, which, it is possible, was the site of a very large and ancient meteorite crater with many stresses in the Earth's crust and quite prone to earthquake and volcanic activity. Some have even said that that is where Earth's moon came from (since it's about the same size) but I think that theory has been discounted long ago!
