As everyone knows by now, Chile was rocked with an enormous 8.8 earthquake early this morning.  This came just one day after a 7.0 in Japan and a little over a month from the devastating 7.0 in Haiti.

The reality is, strong earthquakes occur around the world everyday.  In fact, around 50 earthquakes above magnitude 6.5 are recorded somewhere in the world each year.  This real-time earthquake magnitude tracking tool from the USGS, shows all the earthquakes that exceeded magnitude 5.0 in the last week.  At the time of writing, over 80 earthquakes were on the list!  The majority of them in the Chile region.

It is estimated that a magnitude 7.0 earthquake is equivalent to about half a million tons of high explosives. With each increase of 1.0 in the magnitude scale, it equates to 32 times more energy!  That means the earthquake in Chile was approximately 800 times stronger than the ones that hit Haiti and Japan!

So how can that be?  How can an earthquake of the same magnitude in Japan and Haiti result in virtually no deaths and over 230,000 deaths respectively?  Further, how can an earthquake approximately 800 times stronger result in less than 1,000 deaths?  It depends on many factors including:

1. density of the population
2. infrastructure and economic status of the region
3. education of the people
4. financial resources available in the aftermath
5. the type of earthquake (see chart on right)

Southern California Earthquake Simulation

As an example of this, Southern California is an extremely dense area of the United States.  It also lies on a massive fault line known as the San Andreas Fault.  Experts predict that a 7.8 magnitude quake would result in approximately 1,800 deaths.  A stark contrast from Haiti.  But they also estimate over 255,000 would be homeless and the economic result would be a devastating 213 billion in damages.

Relative to the density of the population, the predicted death toll is very low compared to Haiti. This is due primarily to strict building code laws that require “earthquake-proof” construction. You could also argue that the education of the people (like school drills and public awareness) and the financial resources would have a large positive impact as well.

This video is an amazing artistic depiction of such an earthquake on the San Andreas Fault:

Be prepared.  Consider an earthquake survival kit for you and your loved ones.

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