Lessons Learned from Recent Damaging Earthquakes

There were an above-average number of damaging earthquakes in 2010 but not a statistically unusual number. The tragedy in Haiti stands out as a historically high killer and points out the need for the world community to find a better way to offer assistance in such situations. For the United States, few new lessons were learned but many were re-emphasized. This article analyzes the effect of the 22 major earthquakes that struck in 2010, most notably the 7.0 Haiti earthquake of January 12 and the 8.8 earthquake in Chile on February 27.