The massive earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria on February 6 was the fifth largest earthquake of this century.
Here is a list of the 10 worst earthquakes since 2000, in order of death toll:
– 2004: 230,000 dead, Southeast Asia –
On December 26, a massive 9.1-magnitude earthquake hit the coast of Sumatra, triggering a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in the region, including 170,000 in Indonesia.
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The 30-meter (100-foot) high waves, traveling at 700 kilometers per hour (435 miles per hour), swallowed everything in their path.
– 2010: 200,000 dead, Haiti –
A magnitude 7 earthquake on January 12 devastated the capital Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas.
The earthquake cut the country off from the rest of the world for 24 hours, killing more than 200,000 people, leaving 1.5 million homeless and destroying Haiti’s fragile infrastructure.
In October of the same year, Haiti was also hit by a cholera outbreak that was discovered by Nepalese peacekeepers who arrived after the earthquake. It killed more than 10,000 people.
– 2008: 87,000 dead, Sichuan –
More than 87,000 people, including 5,335 schoolchildren, were killed or missing when a 7.9-magnitude earthquake hit southwestern Sichuan province on May 12.
The quake sparked outrage after 7,000 schools were badly damaged, prompting accusations of shoddy construction, corner-cutting and possible corruption, especially as many other buildings were nearby.
– 2005: 73,000 dead, Kashmir –
The October 8 earthquake killed more than 73,000 people, mostly in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province and the Pakistan-controlled Kashmir zone.
More than 3.5 million are displaced.
– 2023: 35,000 dead, Turkey and Syria –
On February 6, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck near the city of Gaziantep, Turkey, near the Syrian border.
Turkey’s biggest earthquake in nearly a century, followed by a 7.5-magnitude tremor, reduced entire urban neighborhoods in southeastern Turkey and war-torn northern Syria to rubble.
On February 13, the number of tolls reached 35,224.
– 2003: 31,000 dead, Bam (Iran) –
A magnitude 6.6 earthquake in southeastern Iran on December 26 destroyed the ancient mud-brick city of Bam, killing at least 31,000 people.
Nearly 80 percent of Bam’s infrastructure was destroyed and the desert fortress, once considered the largest adobe building in the world, collapsed.
– 2001: 20,000 dead, India –
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake on January 26 hit the state of Gujarat, western India, killing more than 20,000 people.
The earthquake damaged buildings across the country, with many casualties in the city of Bhuj near the border with Pakistan.
– 2011: 18,500 dead, Japan –
On March 11, Japan was hit by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, causing a very high tsunami.
About 18,500 people are dead or missing as a wall of water moves at the speed of a jet plane across the northeast coast.
The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant blanketed nearby areas in radiation, rendering several cities uninhabitable for years and displacing tens of thousands of residents.
– 2015: 9,000 dead, Nepal –
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake on April 25 struck central Nepal, triggering landslides and landslides in the Himalayan country, destroying schools and hospitals.
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The earthquake killed nearly 9,000 people and left millions homeless. It also reduced more than a hundred monuments to ruins, including temples and royal palaces in the Kathmandu valley.
– 2006: 6,000 dead, Java –
On May 26, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit the southern coast of the Indonesian island of Java, near the city of Yogyakarta, killing around 6,000 people.
More than 420,000 were left homeless and around 157,000 homes were damaged.