This morning, the people of Haiti got dealt another blow with a 6.1 magnitude earthquake only 9.9KM deep and 60KM (35 miles) WSW of PORT-AU-PRINCE. With this large aftershock, it compounds the efforts of relief workers and creates panic among survivors who less than a week ago survived a 7.0 Magnitude quake. The initial quake was only 10KM below ground, hence why the damage was so severe. They can expect more aftershocks in the coming days and weeks but hopefully the strong ones are over with.
In comparison, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck Western Washington in 2001. The quake, whose epicenter lay 11 miles northeast of Olympia and 30 miles deep, was the largest to strike the area in more than 50 years. There was sever damage but no where close to Haiti as this quake was deeper and building construction techniques are a lot better than Haiti, where a lot of houses are made of sheet metal or sub-standard materials
We are now inundated with images and videos coming out of Haiti showing the catastrophic damage and devastation to this poor country. A couple interesting image is a before and after image of the presidential palace, a port and a stadium.
The BBC has created an interactive map to see what has occurred and what is happening in regards to relief efforts.
This area lately has not been good for earthquakes. On January 18th, a 6.0 Magnitude quake rocked Guatemala and parts of El Salvador, and the epicenter was located about 97KM (60 miles) southwest of Guatemala City.
Haiti is in for some tough times ahead as they will still be recovering from this quake (barring no more major ones strike) and come summer time when hurricane season starts, could easily destroy or damage any reconstruction efforts setting them back to square one.
The world is responding to this humanitarian crisis with tonnes upon tonnes of food, water, medical supplies and shelters and thousands of relief workers and military personal. Millions of dollars have been donated to help support this crisis and the rebuilding process.
Google has released a plug in to help mitigate all of the different missing persons databases and can be accessed below and also has created a site with additional information on ways you can donate at http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/
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