# Haiti Quake...and No One Else?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haiti-quake-and-no-one-else/525281>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 17, 2010, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haiti-quake-and-no-one-else/525281 "2010-01-17T03:40:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haiti-quake-and-no-one-else/525281/1 "2010-01-17T03:40:29Z")

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Did anyone else feel a quake besides Haiti, even if not as grand? Or, did the quake wavefront quickly get absorbed and dampen out?

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**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haiti-quake-and-no-one-else/525281/2 "2010-01-17T03:56:44Z")

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Only felt, with no damage in Cuba and the Dominican Republic.

[http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=57492](http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=57492)

> [@](#):
>
> According to news reports, the quake was felt in the Dominican Republic as well as Guantanamo Bay.

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haiti-quake-and-no-one-else/525281/3 "2010-01-17T04:16:33Z")

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USGS - [Did You Feel It Map for M7.0 – Haiti Region](http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/us/2010rja6/us/index.html)

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**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haiti-quake-and-no-one-else/525281/4 "2010-01-17T05:57:38Z")

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Quakes are weird events. They all aren’t the same. It’s as if this one was a rifle shot at Port-Au-Prince, not a shotgun blast into the Caribbean (or Haiti). Probably, if the same quake had it’s epicenter in Cap Haitian the death toll in Port-Au-Prince would have been minimal. This was almost the worst imaginable scenario.

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haiti-quake-and-no-one-else/525281/5 "2010-01-17T16:18:26Z")

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Jinx - Look around this site a bit [Earthquakes | U.S. Geological Survey](http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/)

Earthquakes are generally point events. The severity of shakling drops off rapidly with distance. Even a whopper is imperceptable to most humans & their structures a couple hundred miles away.

A Doper posted in another thread that he was in Haiti but halfway across the island when it happened and had no idea until the news reports started coming in. That is 100% typical

Haiti had the bad luck to have A) a crappily-built city, and B) the earthquake happen (for all practical purpioses) right downtown.