Haiti_Earthquake_vs_Japan_Earthquake

Haiti Earthquake vs. Japan Earthquake Will we ever be protected from Mother Nature’s wrath' A year ago, while the Haitian people were attending their office, an earthquake got them by surprise and left their future even more uncertain than before. Furthermore, a year later, another earthquake paid the Japans a quick and tragic visit and left them at risk of an explosion nuclear. As Charles Darwin mentioned once, “A bad earthquake at once destroys the oldest associations: the world, the very emblem of all that is solid, has moved beneath our feet like a crust over a fluid; one second of time has conveyed to the mind a strange idea of insecurity, which hours of reflection would never have created”, in other words, natural disasters like earthquakes have no preference. Although Haiti earthquake and Japan earthquake are similar in geographical location, they differ in magnitude, damage, international aid, and recovery. Despite the fact that Haiti earthquake is similar to Japan earthquake, the outcomes are very different. Haiti is an island of the Caribbean Sea and mostly rocky and mountainous. According to the CIA World Factbook, Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, and eighty percent of his residents live in poverty. Richard Harris, a reporter from NPR radio pointed out that “Haiti sits on a fault line between huge tectonic plates of the Earth’s crust, the North American plate and the Caribbean plate”, means that this position is a position where huge earthquakes usually occur on these plates’ boundaries, which was what happened on January 12, 2010 in Haiti. On January 12, 2010 at 4:53, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the capital of Haiti, Port-Au-Prince, and its 2 million residents. According to an article in Newsweek, “A 7- point magnitude earthquake is 10 times stronger than 6-point and 100 times stronger than a 5 point earthquake”. Due to the extreme power of the earthquake, a considerable number of serious damages occurred along its path. According to ABC news report, many important landmark buildings and residences collapsed in the earthquake, 230,000 people were dead, and 1.3 million people stayed homeless. The report mentioned that the landmark buildings were the Parliament Building, the National Cathedral, including the National Palace, and four other ministry buildings. When the news, “A powerful earthquake hit the island of Hispaniola or Haiti”, came out, people all around the world put their hands together in order to help this poor nation. Aids came from a diversity of nation, such as the United States of America, Venezuela, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Spain, China, The Netherlands, and France. The experts estimated a total cost of 8.9 billion dollars of recovery, and it will take Haiti about 5-10 years to recover totally. From all this tragedy, the world showed its humanitarian side with all the unconditional support. Even though there are similarities between Japan earthquake and Haiti earthquake the outcomes are unlike. Japan is an island situating on the east coast of Asia and mostly rugged and mountainous. An article called “Journey to Asia” confirms that “Japan sits over an extremely unstable region of the earth's crust where the Philippines Sea Tectonic Plate and the vast Pacific Tectonic Plate subduct under the Eurasian Continental Plate and the North American Continental Plate near East Asia”. On these plates’ boundaries serious earthquake often occurred when the plates shift position. On March 11, 2011 at 2:46 pm a powerful 9.o earthquake struck Japan, and a 30 feet tsunami swept out the Asian island along its passage. The damages were alarming and shocking as well. The tsunami washed away everything on its path, such as houses, cars, and many boats. Robert Birsel reported that “A total of 10,489 people were confirmed dead by Japan's National Police Agency as of 1200 GMT on Saturday, while 16,621 were missing, and 18,645 buildings have been completely destroyed”. The most alarming news that has been troubling the all world was the risk of an explosion nuclear. According to an article in Liberal Sprinkles blogs, “The nuclear crisis is developing. The cooling systems at the Fukushima Dai-ichi (No.1) plant 250 km north-east of Tokyo - designed to protect its six reactors from a meltdown - were knocked out by the March 11 tsunami. March 23: The Japanese government says radioactive iodine exceeding the level considered safe for infants has been detected in Tokyo’s tap water. Radiation has already seeped into vegetables, raw milk, the water supply and even seawater in areas surrounding the plant, with radioactivity drastically exceeding legal limits found in more than 10 kinds of vegetable grown in Fukushima. March 20: Engineers are fighting to lower rising temperatures at the plant. The radiation-suited crews managed to restore power to the ageing facility by reconnecting the No. 2 reactor to the national power grid, crucial to efforts to cool it down and limit radiation leak. They are also pumping seawater to cool the overheating reactors and replenish bubbling and depleted pools for spent nuclear fuel. March 19: Traces of radiation first detected in spinach and milk from farms 30-120 km (20-75 miles) from the nuclear plant. Radiation also found further away in tap water, rain and even dust. In all cases, the government said the radiation levels were too small to pose an immediate risk to health. Radiation also detected in eastern Russia but at levels that pose no risk to humans, according to Austria’s Meteorological and Geophysics Center. March 15: Radiation levels near the Fukushima Dai-ichi (No.1) plant 250 km north-east of Tokyo, ranged from 30 to 400 millisieverts in the morning. A single dose of 1,000 millisieverts – or one sievert – causes temporary radiation sickness such as nausea and vomiting”. According to the International Ministry 133 countries and 39 international organizations, including the United State pledged to help Japan going through this tragic trial. The Voanews added,"This has been an unprecedented disaster," Secretary Hillary Clinton said. "But it has provoked an unprecedented show of resilience by the Japanese people and a pledge of cooperation and friendship from the American people. We will be with Japan and the people of Japan as you recover and rebuild, and we will stand with you in the months and years ahead." The costs of damages in Japan after the earthquake and the tsunami reached an estimated amount of 300 billion dollars, and the recovery can take 5-7 years. The Japan earthquake didn’t affect just Japan but the world as a whole, especially in the economical aspect. Although Haiti earthquake and Japan earthquake differ from similarities and differences, the actual truth is that we will never be protected from Mother Nature’s wrath. Mother Nature has a variety of weapon to strike us in many ways. In contrast, humans, the weapon that we fabricate cannot be used to fight against Mother Nature, for we will be the actual victims.