Originally Posted By: Dagny
The Chile quake released 500 times more energy than the Haiti quake (7.0) which preceded it. Unfortunately, Haiti was exponentially less prepared to deal with any sizable earthquake.

With sincere regrets for the people who died - Chile was almost ideally suited to this quake.
It's developed enough to have building codes, and the equipment and infrastructure to cope but not so developed that it has 10 million people living in skyscrapers in the city center.

There is a sort of GDP-damage event curve and you don't want to live at either end, Tokyo or Haiti.