6.1 Aftershock hits Haiti...

[BenBurch]

Just reported. No reports of additional damage, but this couldn't have helped any.

[Soapy Sam]

I was surprised this had not already occurred.

[BenBurch]

There have been a number of smaller ones.

[BenBurch]

http://www.iris.edu/seismon/zoom/events/?lon=-72.88&lat=18.43

[Darth Rotor]

Just reported. No reports of additional damage, but this couldn't have helped any.
6.1 is a non trivial shake. I think the biggest shake I ever felt was 5 point something in San Diego, 1992. That was from a 7.3 quake hundreds of miles away in Palm Desert. We had little shakes for the rest of the day on and off. You'd see the curtains swaying, and such.

A 6.1 would definitely get your attention.

Also, after the 7.0, what's standing? :(

DR

[Thunder]

i feel very bad for these people.

[Checkmite]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/cb_haiti_earthquake

At least one woman died of a heart attack, according to Eddy Thomas, a private undertaker.

"She had a heart condition, and the new quake finished her," he said while pushing her body along the street on a mobile stretcher.

:( :(

[truethat]

These people must feel like it is the end of the world.

[GreyICE]

6.1 is a non trivial shake. I think the biggest shake I ever felt was 5 point something in San Diego, 1992. That was from a 7.3 quake hundreds of miles away in Palm Desert. We had little shakes for the rest of the day on and off. You'd see the curtains swaying, and such.

A 6.1 would definitely get your attention.

Also, after the 7.0, what's standing? :(

DR

Plenty. Turkey ate a 7.8 in the Izmit quake (as reported here (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/significant/sig_1999.php)) and while it sustained non-trivial damage, the results from a quake 11 times larger than the one that hit Haiti could not be described as 'total destruction.'

While the international aid has been nice, it's a sad fact that had Haiti not had the government it, well... has, the devastation would have been very mitigated. One does not normally expect a shock 1/11th the strength of another to do 5-10 times the damage (as measured by loss of life).

[MattusMaximus]

Good grief, some folks just can't catch a break.

[Thunder]

These people must feel like it is the end of the world.

feel like? it pretty much is.

hopefully they can start re-building their world within a month.

[BenBurch]

More than 10% of everybody is dead. And another 10% injured. I don't care what government you have, it wouldn't be able to cope.

[GreyICE]

More than 10% of everybody is dead. And another 10% injured. I don't care what government you have, it wouldn't be able to cope.

This would not have happened had they had proper building standards, codes, and preparations. This stuff was discovered in the 17th century (in response to a MUCH more powerful quake). Like Katrina, it was an avoidable tragedy.

Once again, the Izmit quake was 11 times stronger, and did very much less damage - not none, the loss of life was extensive, as it would be in any country hit by that size quake - but much less.

[Thunder]

More than 10% of everybody is dead. And another 10% injured. I don't care what government you have, it wouldn't be able to cope.

wrong. a death toll of 300,000 would only be 3% of the Haitian population of 9 million.

its a horrible number, but not close to 10%.

[William Parcher]

From CNN...

Wednesday, 4:52 p.m. -- The magnitude of Wednesday morning's aftershock was 5.9, the the United States Geological Survey now says. The USGS initially said the magnitude was 6.1. The 7.0-magnitude earthquake on January 12 was more than 40 times stronger than Wednesday's aftershock.

[GreyICE]

FYI, for those who are curious, Ricter formula for difference:

[10^(M1-M2)]^1.5

So a magnitude 7 quake (M1) is roughly 36 times greater than a magnitude 6 (M2) quake. A magnitude 7 quake is 1000 times greater than a magnitude 5 quake.

This solves the 'what is the goddamn difference' question.

[Darth Rotor]

FYI, for those who are curious, Ricter formula for difference:

[10^(M1-M2)]^1.5

So a magnitude 7 quake (M1) is roughly 36 times greater than a magnitude 6 (M2) quake. A magnitude 7 quake is 1000 times greater than a magnitude 5 quake.

Puttin' the E into JREF! Thanks for that and the Turkey tidbit. :)

DR

[Belz...]

6.1 is a non trivial shake. I think the biggest shake I ever felt was 5 point something in San Diego, 1992. That was from a 7.3 quake hundreds of miles away in Palm Desert. We had little shakes for the rest of the day on and off. You'd see the curtains swaying, and such.

A 6.1 would definitely get your attention.

Also, after the 7.0, what's standing? :(

DR

Depends on where you are. We had a 5.9 back in 1988 in Saguenay and it wasn't that bad. I do think there was 1 broken chimney somewhere but that was about the extent of the damage.

ETA: Ok... some damage. (http://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/histor/20th-eme/saguenay88/saguenay88-eng.php) Not much, though. Mind you, we're sitting on granite, here.

[cwalner]

This would not have happened had they had proper building standards, codes, and preparations. This stuff was discovered in the 17th century (in response to a MUCH more powerful quake). Like Katrina, it was an avoidable tragedy.

Once again, the Izmit quake was 11 times stronger, and did very much less damage - not none, the loss of life was extensive, as it would be in any country hit by that size quake - but much less.

Agreed. The two big quakes that I recall, being from CA are the '89 SF quake and the '94 Northridge quake.

To give a comparison, the '89 SF quake was also a 7.0 and a major population center, yet only 63 people died in that quake and under 4k were reported injured. There was some massive property damage that left up to 12k people homeless.

ETA: just double checked SF and Port-Au-Prince both have similar populations (aprox 700k) and the SF Metro area is only slightly smaller than Haiti (7.4 million compared to 9 millino) I think that this strengthens the comparison.

The Northridge quake was smaller, only 6.7 but had slightly more deaths (72) and more injuries (9k)

Comparing that to the casualty reports from Haiti clearly show what effect proper infrastructure can have on mitigating the effect of large quakes.

[dudalb]

This would not have happened had they had proper building standards, codes, and preparations. This stuff was discovered in the 17th century (in response to a MUCH more powerful quake). Like Katrina, it was an avoidable tragedy.

Once again, the Izmit quake was 11 times stronger, and did very much less damage - not none, the loss of life was extensive, as it would be in any country hit by that size quake - but much less.


The 1989 Loma Preita quake..which I had the "fun" of living through in the East Bay....was just about the same magnitude and although there was some serious damage the death toll was negligable compared to Haiti.
I am going to use this when some Libertarian Idiot talks about how Building codes are oppresive and a violation of Individual Rights...

[Rolfe]

Earthquakes don't kill people. Collapsing buildings kill people.

Rolfe.

[Sam.I.Am]

The 89 quake was epicentered near a sparsely populated part of the Santa Cruz mountains. That's around 60 miles away from San Francisco. The Haitian quake was about 15 miles away from Port au Prince. The Northridge quake was directly beneath a well populated area.

[cwalner]

The 89 quake was epicentered near a sparsely populated part of the Santa Cruz mountains. That's around 60 miles away from San Francisco. The Haitian quake was about 15 miles away from Port au Prince. The Northridge quake was directly beneath a well populated area.

Still in both cases we are talking about less than 100 deaths versus over 300,000 in Haiti. building safety played a major part.

As an example, I still have the image in my head of the video from the Bay Bridge showing the open panel collapsing and crushing the car beneath it. However, the bridge was designed to specifically fail in that manner to avoid a more catostrophic failure. The result: two carloads of casualties rather than every person on the bridge at the time. Considering that the quake hit during the early part of the evening commute, that could have been a very large number of people.