Citizen Cartwright

Stark contrasts of Chile, Haiti earthquakes

The 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday released 500 times more energy than last month's Haiti quake. But Chile's death toll so far is a little more than 700, whereas in Haiti the estimate is that more than 220,000 people died.

The reasons for the vast differences in loss of life: Chile's big cities were farther from the quake's epicenter than Port-au-Prince was. The Chile quake was about 22 miles underground; in Haiti, it was eight miles underground.

And Chile has strict building codes after experiencing in 1960 a 9.5 quake — the highest magnitude earthquake on record.

Helping Haiti

A U.S.-led effort is sending ships, mobile hospitals and food to the island nation, where Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive says that more than 100,000 people may have been killed as a result of Tuesday's earthquake.

Poor Haiti

Even before Tuesday's 7.0 earthquake, the island nation was in a world of hurt.

Here are the stats from the CIA World Factbook: Poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with 80 percent of the population below the poverty line. More than two-thirds of the labor force without formal jobs. Per-capita gross domestic product 203rd in the world. Life expectancy 181st.