Haiti, Indonesia, China, Iran... After the devastating earthquake in central Turkey and northwestern Syria, which left more than 1,500 dead with a death toll expected to rise, we have monitored some earthquakes that have struck several countries and regions around the world in the past two decades. At the forefront is the earthquake that devastated the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince, in 2010, killing 316,000 people.
In the past two decades, various regions of the world have witnessed devastating earthquakes, some of which left hundreds of thousands of people dead. After the catastrophe that struck central Turkey and northwestern Syria on Monday, we monitored some devastating earthquakes, led by the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
Here is a list of some of the most severe earthquakes of the past 20 years:
January 13, 2010: Haiti An earthquake measuring 7.0 struck Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, killing nearly 316,000 people. The United Nations estimated that 80,000 buildings were destroyed in the capital and surrounding areas.
December 26, 2004 A 9.15-magnitude earthquake off Sumatra caused tsunamis that spread to Indonesia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, and many other countries in the region, destroying villages and tourist islands and leaving nearly 230,000 dead or missing.
- May 12, 2008 - China - A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the Sichuan region, killing about 87,600 people.
October 8, 2005, Pakistan A 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck northeast of Islamabad, leaving at least 73,000 dead. The earthquake also struck the Indian part of Kashmir, killing 1,244 people.
- December 26, 2003 - Iran - A 6.6-magnitude earthquake hit the southeast of the Kerman region, flattening the city of Bam and killing 31,000 people.
March 11, 2011: Japan A 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit northeastern Japan, killing nearly 15,690 people and injuring 5,700 others. The quake also resulted in the largest global nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.
- April 25, 2015 - Nepal - A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck impoverished Nepal, killing nine thousand people and paralyzing more than eight million.
- September 28, 2018 - Indonesia - A 7.5-magnitude earthquake hits the island of Sulawesi, triggering a tsunami 1.5 meters high and killing more than 4,300 people.
August 14, 2021: Haiti A 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck southern Haiti, killing more than 2,200 people and destroying 13,000 homes.