In January of 1994, a 6.7 magnitude earthquake hit the San Fernando valley in Los Angelas, CA. In January of 2010 a 7 magnitude earthquake hit 15 miles south of the city of Port-au-Prince Haiti. Both earthquakes occurred in extremely population dense areas. Both were similar in strength. However, while the Haitian earthquake killed close to 300,000 people by some accounts, the Northridge Earthquake killed 57. While some argue the actual death toll to be as low as 84,000 in Haiti, that is still in stark contrast to 57. Why is there such a difference in the two? One reason is while a developed nation such as the United States has a very strict code when constructing buildings, particularly in earthquake prone areas like LA, Haiti does not. Many
