In January, a 7.0 quake hit Haiti, and 230,000 people died. Today, a 7.1 quake hit New Zealand, and early indications are that it caused relatively few serious casualties. Why the difference?
“This was very similar to the earthquake that struck Haiti,” said Paul Caruso, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo. “The main difference is that New Zealand has a lot of experience with earthquakes, and they have good construction codes to make sure that their buildings withstand a strong earthquake.”
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