Ecology
Earthquakes kill far more people than any other natural disaster, say US researchers. No other terrible natural phenomenon, including floods and hurricanes, kills so many people and causes so much harm to human health.
About a million earthquakes of varying intensity occur on earth every year. American scientists estimate that over the past 10 years, earthquakes have killed 780,000 people, accounting for 60 percent of deaths due to natural disasters. The remaining 40 per cent of deaths were mainly due to floods and hurricanes. Floods and hurricanes cause far fewer people to be injured.
It is estimated that there are three injured for every person killed in the earthquake.
Children are most at risk of being killed or injured in an earthquake. In Haiti, after the devastating 2010 earthquake, more than half of those affected were under 20 years of age and 25 per cent under 5 years of age.
Depressions and suicides
Depression is also one of the consequences of an earthquake that affects human health. It is estimated that about 72 per cent of the population is depressed after an earthquake.
After the earthquake in Turkey in 1999, about 17 percent of people living in Turkey admitted that they had suicidal thoughts.