With a provisional assessment which continues to increase, the earthquake which mourns Turkey and Syria since Monday is among the ten deadliest of the 21st century.
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This earthquake is already more deadly than the one that killed 17,400 people in August 1999 in Turkey alone.
2004: 230,000 deaths in Southeast Asia
On December 26, 2004, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra (Indonesia) caused a gigantic tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people on the coasts of ten countries in Southeast Asia, including 170,000 in Indonesia.
The gigantic waves, parties at 700 km/h, reach up to thirty meters in height.
2010: 200,000 deaths in Haiti
On January 12, 2010, an earthquake of magnitude 7 killed more than 200,000 people in Haiti and left 1.5 million people homeless. The tremor transforms the capital, Port-au-Prince, into a field of ruins.
In the followingmath, the country was affected from October 2010 by an epidemic of cholera, introduced by Nepalese peacekeepers who came following the earthquake. It will cause more than 10,000 deaths until January 2019.
2008: 87,000 dead in Sichuan
On May 12, 2008, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake killed more than 87,000 people and injured 4.45 million, devastating large areas of Sichuan province (southwest China). Among the victims are thousands of students, killed in the collapse of precariously constructed schools.
2005: 73,000 dead in Kashmir
On October 8, 2005, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake killed more than 73,000 people and left 3.5 million homeless, mainly in the area of Kashmir under Pakistani control. The medical infrastructures are almost reduced to nothing.
2003: 31,000 dead in Bam, Iran
On December 26, 2003, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck the city of Bam, in southeastern Iran, killing more than 31,000 people, almost a quarter of the city’s population. The old mud-brick city, a wonder of world heritage, is destroyed.
2023: already more than 20,000 dead in Turkey and Syria
On February 6, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hits southern Turkey and neighboring Syria, followed by a very strong followingshock of magnitude 7.5. The still very provisional toll rose to 20,296 dead on Thursday.
2001: 20,000 dead in India
On January 26, 2001, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake hit the state of Gujarat (western India) and killed more than 20,000 people. The town of Bhuj is destroyed.
2011: 18,500 dead in Japan
On March 11, 2011, Japan was shaken by a magnitude 9.1 earthquake. Less than an hour later, a gigantic wave exceeding twenty meters in places hit the coast of the Tohoku region (northeast), taking away all life in its path.
Water invaded the Fukushima nuclear power plant, whose cores of three reactors melted, causing the worst civil nuclear disaster since Chernobyl (Ukraine) in 1986.
The disaster left some 18,500 people dead and missing and forced more than 165,000 people from Fukushima Prefecture to evacuate due to radioactive emissions.
2015: 9,000 dead in Nepal
On April 25, 2015, nearly 9,000 people died in a magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck central Nepal. The capital Kathmandu and the regions of the epicenter, 80 kilometers away, are devastated.
2006: 6,000 dead on the island of Java
On May 26, 2006, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake on the island of Java killed nearly 6,000 people. The disaster leaves approximately 38,000 injured and more than 420,000 homeless.