Why Mexicali Earthquake Damage is Nothing Compared to Haiti

The quake was more powerful than the 7.0 earthquake that left more than 200,000 dead and more than 1 million homeless in Haiti on Jan.12. It was also a relatively shallow earthquake, at six miles underground, meaning there was less earth to absorb the shaking.

But with only two reported dead, the damage is far more contained than the quake that destroyed Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and the massive 8.8-magnitude quake that left 700 dead in Chile on Feb. 27.

IN PICTURES: Mexicali earthquake

One reason for the lower death toll and damage is that the epicenter of Sunday’s quake was in an agricultural belt with few buildings 38 miles from the city of Mexicali in northern Mexico. The Haiti quake was only 18 miles from its densely populated capital of 2.5 million people.

”Just a little bit of distance can make a huge difference,” says Don Blakeman, a geophysicist at the US Geological Survey.

“The secondary factor would be seismic codes,” says Eduardo Miranda, a civil engineer specialized in earthquakes at Stanford University, who has studied earthquakes in the Mexicali region and is heading there this week. “Both in Mexico and the US we have seismic codes that in general are being enforced. There is a culture of earthquakes.”

Felt by 20 million people
The earthquake that struck at about 3:40 p.m. local time on Easter Sunday was one of the biggest in the region in years, and was felt by an estimated 20 million people, as far away as Las Vegas.

Final reports are not in, with communications down and reports of residents still trapped in rubble. But an earthquake that could have wrought enormous damage appears to have killed few and injured about 100 people, mostly by objects falling from shelves and counters in Mexicali.

Still, residents remained shaken Monday, especially with constant aftershocks.

“It is nothing like the damage in Haiti or Chile,” says Gabriela Marquez, who works in communications for the government tourism office in Mexicali. She says most hotels sustained limited damage and once again have water and electricity. “Mostly it is just fear, each time there is an aftershock.”