The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake with its epicenter just west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. It caused widespread destruction and loss of life, with the Haitian government estimating 230,000 people were killed and over 1 million were left homeless. The earthquake exposed Haiti's vulnerabilities as a poor country, destroying much of its infrastructure, hospitals, housing, and government buildings. International aid efforts struggled to provide relief due to the massive scale of the damage and Haiti's lack of resources.

1. HAITI
EARTHQUAKE

2. Introduction
The 2010 Haiti earthquake was
a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake, with
an epicenter near the town of Léogâne (Ouest),
approximately 25 kilometers (16 mi) west of Port-au-
Prince, Haiti's capital. The earthquake occurred at
16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12
January 2010.

3.  The devastating earthquake of January
2010 provides an up-to-date case study
illustrating how susceptible low-income
countries are to natural hazards
 It is relevant to all GCSE courses and
may also be relevant to AS/A2 level
courses (e.g.
Edexcel Unit 1 – Global Challenges)

4.  On 12th
January 2010 a huge earthquake,
registering a magnitude of 7.0 on the
Richter Scale, struck the Caribbean
island nation of Haiti
 Haiti has a history of destructive
earthquakes but this was the worst in
200 years
 The Epicentre was near Leogane, 25km
West of Haiti’s capital, Port-Au-Prince

6. Map of Haiti Showing the Epicenter of the January 12th
Earthquake and
Population Affected

7.  By 24th January at least 52 aftershocks
measuring 4.5 + on the Richter Scale had
been recorded
 The US Geological Survey estimates that
3.5 million people lived in the area where
‘moderate to heavy’ damage occurred
 The Haitian government estimates that
230,000
people died, about 300,000 people were
injured and 1 million were made homeless
out of a population of 10 million
 Some 250,000 dwellings were destroyed or

8.  For any country this would have been a
major disaster
 However, as a very poor nation Haiti was
particularly badly placed to cope with such an
event
 According to the World Bank (2008), Haiti’s
GDP
per person is only US$660
 This makes Haiti the poorest country in the
Western Hemisphere
 It is ranked 149th out of 182 countries on the
HDI

9. Haiti lies close to the boundary of
two tectonic plates
 The Caribbean plate is shifting by about
20mm a year relative to the North American
plate

10.  The focus of the January Earthquake was
about 13km below the Earth’s surface on the
Enriquillo- Plantain Garden Fault
 This fault had been ‘locked’ for 250 years,
gathering stress, so that when this
earthquake happened, the rupture in the
fault was 65km long, with a slippage of 1.8
metres
 Seismologists had already warned that major
seismic activity in the area was likely and
the 2010 earthquake could be the beginning
of a sequence of earthquakes

11.  The primary hazard of the earthquake,
the shaking ground, caused secondary
hazards such as collapsing buildings,
and food and water shortages due to
the damage and disruption
 Vital infrastructure needed for a
response to the disaster was destroyed

12.  Electricity supplies were disrupted
 Roads were blocked (the main road
between Port-au-Prince and Jacmel was
still blocked 10 days after the earthquake)
 The international airport was unusable due
to control-tower damage, as was Port-au-
Prince harbour
 The public telephone system was knocked
out, with no signal for mobile phones and no
internet

13.  Medical facilities were badly affected, with
some hospitals destroyed
 Key buildings were flattened, including the
National Assembly, Supreme Court, City
Hall, main cathedral, universities, schools
and the World Bank offices
 The main prison was wrecked and 4000
inmates escaped

14. 1. People took sleeping to the streets, on
pavements or in cars because their homes
had been flattened, or they feared
remaining buildings would collapse due to
aftershocks
2. Because of the lack of building regulations
buildings are put up wherever they will fit
in, without proper foundations
3. About 2 million Haitians live as squatters
on land they do not own

15. 1. Even before the earthquake Haiti suffered
from shortages of fuel and drinking water
2. After the quake there was major
confusion, even though President Rene
Preval and his ministers met with UN
planners every day
3. A few days after the earthquake the
government handed control of the airport
to US authorities to try to speed up aid
effort, but some aircraft with potentially
life-saving supplies still had to be turned
away.

17. • Survivors crammed into make shift camps like
this one, which faced further threats such as
disease outbreaks

18.  Much of the early rescue work was done
by Haitians and by teams from the
Dominican Republic, the first country to
respond
 Within 24 hours a medical team from
Iceland had landed
 A 50 strong Chinese team followed
 Qatar and Israel sent teams to set up
field hospitals

19. The American Red Cross let people
donate via text message and set a
record by raising US$7m in 24 hours
Many countries, including the UK,
offered financial aid

20.  Two months after the quake, in March,
the rainy season began
 At this point, 500,000 survivors were
sleeping rough and 500,000 more were
crowded into make-shift camps
 It was feared the rain would turn the
camps into quagmires and trigger further
secondary hazards such as mudslides
and disease outbreaks

21. Aid agencies warned that if shelter
and sanitation arrangements were
not made quickly, a further
humanitarian disaster would occur
The UN increased its relief appeal to
US$1.44bn

22.  The impacts on Haiti’s economy is
massive
 Even before the disaster Port-au-Prince
could not sustain its population, partly
because so many people had moved
there from the countryside to find work
 As in most LEDCs, rural-urban migration
has been significant in recent years

26. Thank you