By Lubna Abdel-Aziz He dropped to the ground in an instant. Cowering with fear, he trembled as he saw everything around him collapse without warning. Suddenly, he felt the ground beneath him roar and rumble. No snow, no rain, no hail, no thunder, no lightening; the sky was clear, and the stars were bright. Where is this awesome force coming from? He crawled to his cave, which was always his refuge , but found it split in two, as the earth swallowed everything in sight. He lay helpless and unprotected, to face nature's wrath. Primitive man was experiencing his first earthquake. Despite the passage of time, millions of Haitians felt the same trepidation and fear as did early man when an earthquake struck their capital of Port-au-Prince, last week. .This tiny nation, which has seen its share of tragedies and disasters, was once again facing another of mighty nature's quivers and quakes.. Under the rubble still lie tens of thousands of lives that could have been saved by man, but were instead destroyed by man. No amount of progress or technology has yet been able to prevent the loss of people or property Hurricanes, floods, tsunamis and earthquakes, strike at will, and without warning, leaving man as helpless today, as he was since the beginning of time. How does the scientific community feel about that? Earthquakes result from a trembling, a shaking and a rolling of the earth's crust. Most of them occur beneath the surface of the sea, causing little or no damage. The focus of most earthquakes is less than 40 kilometres beneath the surface of the earth; some as deep as 640 kilometres. Only a few occur at the earth' surface, and those are the ones that destroy and kill. The Port-au-Prince earthquake was less than 10 kilometres below the surface, hence the horrendous death and destruction It is hard to believe that over 1 million earthquakes occur each year, most of them unnoticed, or mistaken for the rumbling of a truck or tractor. From time to time we witness the ravaging and annihilation of the large earthquakes since recorded history. The first major earthquake took place in Corinth, Greece, in 856 AD. The most devastating earthquake in the history of mankind occurred in the Shensi province of China, in 1556. claiming an estimated 1 million lives, causing the collapse of caves, carved out of cliffs, used as homes by the Chinese The strength of an earthquake is measured on a 1-9 scale, known as the Richter scale. Devised by two seismologists, Charles Richter and Beno Gutenberg. A measure of 1 is only felt by scientific instruments. A measure of 9 would be inconceivably devastating, and has never been recorded. A measure of 7 or over results in massive destruction,a measure of 8 is an unimaginable disaster. Why do earthquakes occur? According to the "plate theory", the surface of the earth consists of about 20 rigid plates that move slowly past one another. The motion of these plates, squeezes and stretches rocks at the edges of the plates. If the force becomes too great, the rocks rupture and shift, resulting in a quake. These ruptures are called "faults", which usually lie beneath the surface. Some, however are visible, such as the San Andreas Fault in California California is one of the areas that fall within, what is known as " Ring of Fire", where most earthquakes. take place. The two major areas are 1) "the circum- Pacific" belt and 2) " the Alpide belt". More than 75 % occur in the circum-Pacific belt. The Alpide belt accounts for most of the other quakes, which cuts across Europe and Asia, from Burma to southern Europe and North Africa. Haiti experienced one of the worst earthquakes in history, destroying close to 200,000 lives and 1 out of 10 houses or buildings. Built to withstand the many hurricanes that hit the area, they proved unfit for the assault of such a massive earthquake. When Port-au-Prince will be rebuilt it will be constructed in a manner that could remain standing despite an earthquake, such as is followed in California today. The name " Haiti" is derived from a native Indian word meaning 'high-ground'. Covered with rugged mountains, this West-Indies Caribbean nation, has met a string of calamities with great courage Christopher Columbus first landed on the island known as Hispaniola in 1492, claiming it as a Spanish colony. Haiti occupies the western third of the island, while on the east is the Dominican Republic, once known as Santo Domingo. The oldest black republic in the world, Haiti won its independence from France , which had seized control from Spain, in 1804. Yet Haiti, once the richest country in the Caribbean, is the least developed and the most densely populated. Most Haitians are descendants of African slaves brought by the Spaniards to replace the fast- dying original Indian natives, The Spanish settlers treated the Indians so harshly, that by 1530, only a few hundred Indians were still alive. France took control of the western- third of the island in 1607 and brought in African slaves to develop their big coffee and spice plantations. Most of the inhabitants still practice many of the African traditions , and their religion is a blend of Christian and African beliefs called 'voodoo'. Five percent of the people of Haiti are'mulattoes', of mixed African and Spanish or French ancestors. The most educated and prosperous, they speak French as well as the native language known as Haitian Creole. Two million of 10 million inhabitants practice Catholicism. With its tropical climate, mild temperatures, lush greenery and long beaches, it should be an ideal tourist spot, which it is not, because of its poverty and political turmoil. If one were to seek some good, out of the horrendous carnage following the earthquake, perhaps Haiti can be reborn. With solid buildings and brand new beach hotels, tourism can flourish on the island, as is the case with Santo Domingo and Puerto Rico. As we witness nature's fury with incredulity at our powerlessness, we pray for Haiti and its people, and we should keep foremost in our minds that buildings kill people, not just earthquakes Nature is not human-hearted -- Lao-Tzu (5th century)
