Overview

Striking without warning, earthquakes often are among the most devastating natural disasters. In the first decade of the 21st century alone earthquakes, accounted for 60 percent of deaths from natural disasters, according to the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR). One of the deadliest earthquakes hit in 2010, when more than 225,000 people were killed as the result of a particularly harrowing earthquake in Haiti.

Caused by the movement of plates along fault lines on the earth’s surface, earthquakes often leave a monumental path of instant death and destruction. In some cases, however, the quake is only the beginning of the trouble, such as the tsunami and nuclear meltdown that followed the massive 2011 earthquake in Japan. More recently, a pair of tremblors struck southern and central Mexico eleven days apart in September 2017, killing more than 300 and toppling thousands of homes and businesses.  Occurring on the 32nd anniversary of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake that killed an estimated 10,000 people, a commemoration and drill had been held just hours before in the city.

In addition to Mexico City, some of the world’s most populous cities—Tokyo, New York, Mumbai, Delhi, Shanghai, Kolkata and Jakarta—lie on fault lines.

Rescue workers dig through the rubble of a fallen building in the Condesa neighborhood of Mexico City on Tuesday Sept. 19, 2017. (Photo by Dominic Bracco II for Direct Relief)

Quakes are measured on a Richter scale of 1.0 to 10.0, gauging the intensity of shocks. Each year, some 900,000 quakes with a 2.0 or smaller affect the world; while those are large enough to be measured by seismographs, they are not felt by most. Earthquakes of 7.0 or higher, which cause serious damage, occur at a rate of about 100 per year. Those higher than 8.0 on the Richter scale, able to completely destroy a city, occur roughly every five or 10 years.

In the United States, three significant fault lines have the potential for tremendous damage. The San Andreas Fault, for one, runs the length of California. While the last mega-quake was in 1906, the state has been beset by large earthquakes on a frequent basis. Consequently, the state has somewhat stringent building codes to withstand the shaking.

Two other areas of the country are not quite as prepared. The Cascadia Subduction Zone in the Pacific Northwest stretches from Seattle to Northern California and experiences a giant quake every 300-600 years; the last was in 1700 according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The New Madrid Seismic Zone links Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri and Mississippi. Three earthquakes in excess of 8.0 occurred there in 1811 and 1812; scientists say those quakes likely were larger than the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, though modern measurements did not exist then. Both faults have a significant likelihood of triggering a major earthquake in the next half century.

Internationally, the Pacific Ring of Fire is home to 90 percent of the world’s earthquakes and 75 percent of the world’s active volcanoes. According to National Geographic, “It is shaped more like a 40,000-kilometer (25,000-mile) horseshoe. A string of 452 volcanoes stretches from “the southern tip of South America, up along the coast of North America, across the Bering Strait, down through Japan, and into New Zealand. Several active and dormant volcanoes in Antarctica, however, ‘close’ the ring.” There have been several substantial earthquakes in this area including the May 22, 1960 Valdivia earthquake which, at 9.5 on the Richter scale, is the largest earthquake ever recorded.

Key Facts

  • In the immediate aftermath of an earthquake, providing relief is difficult—if not impossible. Roads, bridges and airports are disabled. Communications systems are challenged. Emergency aid that can arrive often is focused on search-and-rescue operations. Consequently, many affected find they must provide for their own basic needs for the first few days.
  • The aftermath of an earthquake may bring disease, especially in resource-poor countries.In Haiti, a post-earthquake outbreak of cholera killed more than 7,000. The number is small compared to the loss of life from the earthquake itself, but the cholera outbreak stretched for more than a year and sickened more than 520,000. Haiti’s poor water system was partially blamed for the spread of disease.
  • Countries that strengthen building codes often reduce death and destruction. According to one study, the damage in Haiti was twice that of other 7.0 earthquakes. Poor-quality concrete, a building staple, was blamed for many building failures. A 2008 earthquake in China brought investigations into shoddy material used in school buildings after 90,000 died. On the other end of the spectrum is Chile, which has used concrete walls as a brace for its buildings due to the frequency of quakes there. When an 8.8 magnitude quake struck in 2010, fewer than 1,000 people died.
  • In the United States, earthquakes are not isolated to one region of the country. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 45 states and territories are at moderate to high risk of earthquakes. Twenty-six urban centers are also at risk. In 2011, an earthquake centered in Virginia was felt from North Carolina to New York and caused damage to federal monuments in Washington, D.C.
  • Earthquake recovery takes years, though interest wanes. In 2012, the United Nations sought $230 million to continue aiding Haitians. Though 500,000 Haitians lived in tents two years after the quake, only 19 percent of the aid sought by the U.N. had been received.

How To Help

  • Fund innovative building programs and education, particularly in resource-poor countries. Poorly constructed buildings collapse in earthquakes; falling debris is the greatest cause of death. Some experiments with straw houses and bamboo are underway but overcoming local superstitions about alternative building materials is necessary.
  • Transfer knowledge from prepared communities to those at risk. Cities and countries that experience the most frequent smaller earthquakes often are extremely well-prepared while others that are due for a major earthquake may not be.
  • Invest in water system initiatives. Vital services are important to stop the spread of disease. Yet in an earthquake, infrastructure often is damaged. Alternative water supplies can be vital to stopping disease. Both small-scale water supplies—for rural areas—and large systems for urban centers are needed.

What Funders Are Doing

– Mercy Corps received $150,000 to support economic recovery and growth of small businesses affected by the earthquake.

– Fundación Hogares was awarded $74,819 to support local economic and neighborhood recovery in five specific neighborhoods in the Jujutla municipality of Mexico.

– Habitat for Humanity Mexico received $95,183 to support home rebuild projects for 178 families in Puebla who are operating home-based businesses.

– Fondo Acción Solidaria (FASOL) was awarded $19,000 for the creation of a cultural center that allows the community to benefit from meeting space, workshop implementation and cooperatively organized community space.

  • In 2018, the Lenore and Charles Hale Fund at the Seattle Foundation, awarded a grant to Centro de Apoyo al Movimiento Popular Oaxaqueño in Juarez, Mexico to provide consulting, training and technical support to rebuild communities in Oaxaca affected by the recent earthquakes.
  • In 2012, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation awarded UC Santa Cruz, Department of Ocean Science, School of Earth and Marine Science a grant of $757,876 to study the fault that caused the March 2011 earthquake in Japan. The grant enabled participation in the international rapid-response project, Japan Trench Fast Drilling Project, which has established the first- ever underwater earthquake observatory by deep-water drilling at the site of the March 2011 Tohoku megathrust earthquake.
  • The W.M. Keck Foundation provided a $1 million grant to scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute to build and install an observatory at the expected rupture zone of the Cascadia fault.
  • The Skoll Foundation has devoted $1.25 million to support Build Change in its pursuit of training homeowners, local construction workers, governments and nongovernmental organizations on retrofitting and rebuilding safely in developing countries vulnerable to natural disasters like earthquakes.

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