The epicenter was over 80 miles away from any kind of population centers. The total number of casualties was 700 deaths and more than 2 million people were made homeless. The economic impact would be far less, as the damage was isolated mainly to collapsed buildings in various cities around the country. The recovery from these events was less severe. Part of the reason for this, is because Chile had learned from previous earthquakes in the past (which had devastating consequences for the country). At the same time, they were wealthier and these kinds of events were a main focus of the government (due to the frequency of them). (Bajak) ("Quake Comparison") When you compare the two earthquakes with one another, it is clear that the reason why the Haiti was more devastating is country did not experience these events on a regular basis (in comparison with Chile). At the same time, the epic center was within a short distance of a major population center. These two factors would create a situation, where the country was unable to cope with these events. As the buildings, infrastructure and government responses were limited....

This is important, because it is showing how despite the Chile earthquake being more severe (on the Richter scale) it did not cause as much damage to the country. As a result, one could argue that constant amounts of seismic activity would have an effect upon Chile, by constantly preparing everyone for the possibility of another major earthquake taking place at any time. When you put these two elements together, along with the epicenter being farther away from major population areas, this means that the effects of Chile's earthquake would be less severe. In many ways, one could argue that these were the deciding factors in determine the overall amounts of collateral damage and causalities in both countries.
Bibliography

"Quake Comparison." The Week, 2010. Web. 12 Feb. 2011

"Types of Fault Lines." Earthquake Fact, 2011. Web. 12 Feb. 2011

Bajak, Frank. "Chile Earthquake 2010." Huffington Post, 2010. Web. 12 Feb. 2011

Thurman, Collen. "Chile vs. Haiti. Triple Helix, 2010. Web. 12 Feb. 2011

MLA Format. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/02/