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The earthquake was so destructive for a number of reasons:
- The earthquake occurred at shallow depth - this means that the seismic waves have to travel a smaller distance through the earth to reach the surface so maintain more of their energy in particular this meant that the surface waves (which cause the vast majority of the damage during an earthquake ans which are the most rapidly attenuated and and have significant reductions in amplitude as the depth of the earthquakes focus increases) produced by the earthquake maintained a large amount of their energy maximising the damage they cause.
- The earthquake occurred in close proximity to a populated area. This again means that there is very little attenuation of the seismic waves (i.e they still have most of their energy and so are more destructive when they arrive).
- The buildings in Port-au-Prince and other areas of Haiti were in very poor condition in general and were not designed or constructed to be earthquake resistant.
Please see the related question for further information.
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How much damage did the haiti earthquake cause?
A lot
Why did liquefaction cause so much damage in some areas of the Christchurch earthquake?
cause it just did.....
A break in the crust along which rock move is a?
The break is a fault in the rock that can lead to an earthquake, whose tremors can cause much damage to property and death.
How did the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake cause so much damage is it occurred in the middle of the Indian Ocean?
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The two earthquakes occurred due to differing types of fault movement (thrust faulting in the Chilean quake vs strike slip faulting in the Haitian quake) and at two differing types of plate boundaries. In the case of the Chilean earthquake, this was at a convergent boundary where the Nazca oceanic plate is being subducted under the continental South American plate as opposed to the Haitian earthquake which occurred at a transform boundary between the Caribbean and North American plates which are both moving east but at differing speeds. The Haitian earthquake was also of lower magnitude (magnitude 7.0) than the Chilean earthquake (magnitude 8.8) however it caused more damage and led to a much larger number of injuries and fatalities due to the poor construction techniques used in Haiti. Please see the related questions for more information.
How much damage did the haiti earthquake cause?
A lot
Why did liquefaction cause so much damage in some areas of the Christchurch earthquake?
cause it just did.....
What is the damage a magnitude 8 earthquake can cause?
A magnitude 8 earthquake can release as much energy as 6 million tns of TNT. It can cause severe damage to structures and can very fatal.
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The earth's globe turned 10cm.
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How much damage was caused when the good Friday earthquake?
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The break is a fault in the rock that can lead to an earthquake, whose tremors can cause much damage to property and death.
How is 1.9 earthquake different from a 8.5 earthquake?
An 8.5 Earthquake is MUCH larger and does more damage.
How much damage in the colombia earthquake?
alot
Diagram of Richter scale?
Richter scale is a scale which shows the magnitude of a earthquake. magnitude below than 4.0 does not cause much damage , magnitude below 2.0 ussually are not felt, magnitude over 5.0 cause damage, 6.0 is considered strong, and 7.0 is a major earthquake.
How did the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake cause so much damage is it occurred in the middle of the Indian Ocean?
catagory 5 earth qwacke
What does more damage?
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