Compare And Contrast Earthquake And Haiti Earthquake

As a member of the government Disaster Management Task Force, a geographical report has been required to be written which analyses the impact of two natural disasters and evaluates which was the most severe. The two chosen natural disasters includes the 2011 Japanese tsunami/earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
Disaster 1 – Japanese Tsunami and Earthquake
On Friday the 11th of March 2011, a magnitude 9.0 Earthquake struck coastal waters, along a subduction zone, surrounding Japanese islands. At the time of the Earthquake, no one expected what was about to occur, one of the most devastating tsunamis to have ever hit Japan. Earthquakes are caused by forces deep within the Earth when two blocks of the earth suddenly slip past one another.
This Earthquake, similar to disaster 1, appeared unexpectedly, leaving residents/public with no time to react. As mentioned earlier in the report, Earthquakes are caused by 2 plates slipping past one another, causing shakes on the Earth’s surface. However, this Earthquake occurred on different plates; the Caribbean Plate and the North American Plate. According to official estimates, 316,000 people were killed, 300,000 were injured, 1.3 million were displaced/homeless, 97,294 houses destroyed and 188,383 damaged in the Port-au-Prince area and in much of southern Haiti. A lot of these deaths were also caused by the outbreak of the disease, Cholera, where faeces came in contact with drinking water. This disease had 664 282 cases, with 8 173 of these eventually dying. After the Earthquake had occurred, the amount of orphans in Haiti dramatically increased as many children had lost their parents from collapsed buildings and infrastructure such as 4 992 schools (23% of Haiti’s school). In terms of economic impacts, the total damages of this tragedy have reached an estimated total of $7.8 billion solidifying the severity of the earthquake. Another huge impact on the local and national economy was the rebuilding of housing and