In the wake of major disasters this year in Haiti and Chili, geologists, seismologists and engineers are meeting in Toronto this week to discuss earthquake preparedness.

The vice president of the Canadian Association of Earthquake Engineering says the conference's main priority is sharing information, particularly with developing countries where infrastructure is typically not built to withstand earthquakes.

"The (main) cause of death in a disaster like (Haiti) is that the buildings are not well-built," Jag Humar told CTV's Canada AM on Monday.

"It's not the earthquakes that kill, it's the buildings that kill."

Humar said the knowledge and technology is in place to prevent buildings from collapsing in earthquakes, but those techniques have not been put in place in many developing countries.

"It's not the cost, it's the lack of knowledge . . . the cost is slightly more but it's not prohibitive at all if it's done at the beginning of (the project)," he said of constructing buildings according to up-to-date earthquake code.

Despite the number of high-profile earthquakes, including a 5.0 magnitude shaker in Toronto, Humar said the frequency of earthquakes remains historically steady.

At least 200,000 people died in the 7.0 Haitian earthquake in January.

An 8.8 earthquake hit Chile in late February, killing about 500.

Experts say that the Chile earthquake is an example of how earthquake building codes can save lives. Despite that earthquake being 500 times more powerful than the quake in Haiti, the death toll was significantly less.

The Ninth U.S National and Tenth Canadian Conference on Earthquake Engineering started on Sunday and runs though Thursday.