The 2010 Haiti earthquake had a moment magnitude of 7.0. It struck on 12 January 2010 at 4:53 p.m. local time, with its epicenter near Léogâne, about 25 kilometers west-southwest of Port-au-Prince.
The earthquake occurred at a shallow depth of roughly 13 kilometers, which helped make the shaking especially destructive. It involved blind thrust faults associated with the Enriquillo–Plantain Garden fault system, a major tectonic boundary crossing the region. The main shock lasted less than 30 seconds, but the damage was catastrophic.
Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas suffered widespread building collapses, including damage to homes, hospitals, schools, government buildings, and roads. Estimates of the death toll vary substantially, from roughly 100,000 to more than 300,000, partly because of incomplete records and differing methods of calculation.
Magnitude and intensity are not the same thing. Magnitude measures the earthquake’s overall energy release, while intensity describes the severity of shaking and damage at a particular location. The event reached about IX on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale in parts of the capital region.