Within the spectrum of natural disasters, earthquakes are those that generate the greatest number of stressors in the affected population, in terms of death and destruction. These phenomena of sudden jolts of the earth's crust, caused by the release of stored energy, which originate in geological faults by friction on the edge-of-plate tectonics, volcanic processes or even underground nuclear detonations, are those that test the responsiveness and resilience of populations, businesses and service teams government emergency and business.
During 2016 alone, 11,477 earthquakes have been reported worldwide, with magnitudes between 4.9 and 7.9 degrees on the Richter scale, and 5 to 27 km deep. Earthquakes have cost about 1209 lives and losses of between 1 to 3% of GDP in each country affected. If damage to the economic and productive infrastructure are considered, there have been about 100,000 jobs lost by the consequences of earthquakes, and about 20,000 businesses overall have had to close because of this. About 200,000 companies worldwide were toiling during the seismic period and tested business team's emergency plans.
The paper is based on the lessons learned during the earthquake of April 16, 2016, in the coastal area of Ecuador. It is presented as a study of protection and seismic reaction, then design and implement the emergency plan seismic, which allows not only response from infrastructure, but also from the socio-organizational sphere, and moving this functionality to the communities and populations affected, or potentially affected, by earthquakes.
It is necessary that personnel in occupational safety and health are aware and manage definitions and specific concepts about earthquakes, intensities, magnitudes, scales, seismic measurement, return times, seismic propagation, and interpret efficiently the information sent to geophysical institutes on earthquakes in different magnitudes.
This helps to know, prevent, and evaluate the effects of earthquakes with its consequences within a population or a company. The information on the concepts of seismic cycle in their developmental stages helps prevent fatalities within the company or affected population and enable planning of seismic risk-triggering measures prediction, prevention and correction within companies in regard to infrastructure and production processes, as well as establishing new business locations or population.
