The Haiti earthquake in January 12, 2010 at 16:53 (local time) was a magnitude 7.0 on the Richter scale (equivalent power to that of a nuclear bomb of 5 mega ton). The epicenter was located at Envrion 25 km south-west of Port-au-Prince. Other tremors were recorded magnitude lower (5.0 to 8.9) in the hours that followed. The island of Hispaniola (shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic) is situated in an active seismic zone between two tectonic plates: the North American Plate (north) and the Caribbean plate (south). The earthquake was caused by the rupture of the fault over a length of Enriquillo between 50 and 100 km.

To find catasphores of this magnitude, we must go back to the early twentieth century (1904) or at the end of the eighteenth century (1751 and 1770), although diffcile measure the importance of these ancient earthquakes; only written records tell the extent of damage.

An initial assessment of the WHO reported more than 50,000 dead. The UN has never faced such a natural disaster. Cities near the epicenter, as Leogane (20 0000 inhabitants) were destroyed almost 90%. According to Ban Ki-moon, the secretary of the United Nations, more than 3 million people in Port-au-Prince have been affected over 4 million inhabitants of the capital