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Haiti - living in tectonically active locations - earthquakes - Coggle…
Haiti - living in tectonically active locations - earthquakes
tectonic setting -
poorest country in the America's, situated at the western end of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola
like Japan and Indonesia the island is part of a volcanic island-arc.
until 2010 most of seismic activity took place in the East of the island, Dominican Republic
largest earthquake in living memory was 4MW earthquake near the capital.
all events took place on the Enriquillo fault
conservative margins where the Caribbean plate is slipping eastwards to the North American plate
The Haiti earthquake,2010
12th January 2010 at 4:53 pm local time an earthquake hit Haiti
7.0MW
A slip along 40km section of the Enriquillo fault
shallow focus - 12km
epicentre 25km southwest of Port-au-prince the capital
Haiti has no seismic network to record earthquake events
there were a total of 51 aftershocks > 4.5MW in the year after the initial event
Social impacts -
poor record keeping and vested interests combines to make estimate of deaths and injuries highly unreliable
all but one of the 22 government buildings within Port-au-Prince were destroyed
over 300,000 houses and 30,000 commercial buildings were either destroyed or damaged
displaced as many as 1.5 million people who were forced to live in camps
secondary effect - a cholera endemic broke out in October 2010. the first case was detected near to the UN base for nepalese troops bought in to help with the reconstruction
since the first case over 800,000 were recorded
official number of deaths in 2020 was just under 10,000 but some estimate 8 times this amount
aid piling up at airport as not enough trucks or people to deliver it. was not enough food or water to go around
Gangs stopped people being able to get hold of aid from NGOs
economic impacts -
removal of tariffs was significant as it allowed heavily subsidised US rice to be imported undercutting local producers. led to bankruptcy for many small farmers and accelerated rural to urban migration.
largest income sources are remittances - providing 25% of its GDP
weak and corrupt government still struggles to collect tax income
$7.8 billion worth of damage after earthquake
Political impacts
Once France gave Haiti their independence Haiti were told pay $US 21 billion to the french government for the loss slaves. - this was not fully repaid until 1947 which stunted their development
Well-armed gangs now control crucial transportation routes, including an essential corridor on the only road leading from the capital to the new quake zone.
Gangs control the area around the main port where fuel shipments arrive. They are also present in the industrial business zone where food is often stored,
2nd August 2021 Médecins Sans Frontières had to stop medical activities permanently as gunshots were fired at the centre in the West of Haiti's capital
gdp per capita haiti - 1,829.59 USD (2021)