Although it measured 8.8, the earthquake in Chile on Feb. 27 could have inflicted much more damage. The quake demonstrated important lessons about how structural systems save lives.

The quake was also a reminder that better building codes in countries such as Haiti are needed.

After the 1960, 9.5 earthquake in Chile, the country developed a seismic design code for new buildings.

"Concepcion was completely destroyed in 1960 by the last major earthquake in Chile," said Paul Simons, U.S. Ambassador to Chile. "And most of the building stock there was erected to a pretty strict code, so that housing stock held up pretty well."

The new code calls for reinforced concrete column strengthened by a steel frame.

In the Chilean quake, the epicenter was 21 miles underground and offshore about 70 miles. There were a substantial number of buildings that did collapse, and they were mostly from the colonial era or made of Adobe.

Reinforced concrete beams join columns to make floors and the roof, with the beams playing a crucial role in not allowing the building to topple in a major earthquake.

In contrast, many of the buildings the fell in the Haiti earthquake in January lacked reinforced concrete and resulted in buildings that "pancaked" under the swaying caused by the quake.

The Haiti quake was a 7.0 on the Richter scale, and 500 times less powerful than the Chilean quake.

In Haiti, more than 250,000 died while in Chile about 715 are so far reported dead.

"When you look at the architecture in Chile you see buildings that have damage, but not the complete pancaking that you've got in Haiti," said Cameron Sinclair, executive director of Architecture for Humanity, a 10-year-old nonprofit that has helped people in 36 countries rebuild after disasters.

Engineers said that the Chilean buildings constructed after the 1960 quake mostly have several walls in the transverse directions and also walls in the longitudinal direction -- making buildings extremely resilient in the case of a devastating quake.

"This earthquake really has been two earthquakes, to some extent," Simons said. "The situation here in Santiago is returning to normal fairly quickly. Electricity and water have been restored to most of the city. Stock market was open today. The newspapers are being issued. Traffic is fairly normal. There’s a fair amount of internal damage to buildings, but not too much structural damage. And clearly, Santiago is moving forward. But the Concepcion area, the Maule area, were hit very, very, very hard, and the situation there is quite precarious. And that really will be the focus of our efforts in the coming days in terms of American citizen work."