World’s 14 deadliest earthquakes of last decade

The earthquake in Nepal in April 2015 killed almost 9.000 people

More than 400 people were killed and at least 6,600 injured in Iran when a magnitude 7.3 earthquake hit the country, state media said on Monday. At least six have died in Iraq as well.

Local officials said the death toll of Iran’s deadliest earthquake in more than a decade would rise as search and rescue teams reached remote areas to look for dozens of people trapped under rubble in the in the mountainous area.

Here is a short timeline of some of the world’s deadliest major earthquakes in the last 10 years:

* Sept 19, 2017 – MEXICO – A 7.1 magnitude quake hits central Mexico, killing at least 369 people, causing more devastation in the capital than any since the 1985 earthquake that killed thousands.

* Aug 24, 2016 – ITALY – A 6.2 magnitude quake strikes a cluster of mountain communities 140 km (85 miles) east of Rome in central Italy, killing about 300 people.

* Apr 16, 2016 – ECUADOR – A devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake smashes Ecuador, killing more than 650 people along the country’s ravaged Pacific coast.


* Oct 26, 2015 – AFGHANISTAN – A magnitude 7.8 earthquake rocks the Afghan northeast, killing nearly 400 people in Afghanistan and nearby northern Pakistan.

* Apr 25, 2015 – NEPAL – A magnitude 7.8 earthquake ravages impoverished Nepal, killing nearly 9,000 people and disrupting the lives of more than eight million people.

* Aug 3, 2014 – CHINA – A magnitude 6.3 earthquake devastates southwestern China, killing at least 600 people in a remote area of Yunnan province.

* Sept 24, 2013 – PAKISTAN – Twin earthquakes, measuring 7.7 and 6.8 magnitude, strike Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, killing at least 825 people.


* Aug 11, 2012 – IRAN – Two strong quakes, measuring 6.4 magnitude and 6.3 respectively, kill at least 300 people near the city of Tabriz in northwestern Iran.


* Oct 23, 2011 – TURKEY – A powerful magnitude 7.2 earthquake shakes southeast Turkey, killing more than 600 people.

* March 11, 2011 – JAPAN – A 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami strikes Japan’s northeast, killing about 15,690 people and injuring 5,700. The earthquake also triggers the world’s biggest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

* Feb 22, 2011 – NEW ZEALAND – A 6.3 magnitude earthquake hits Christchurch, killing at least 180 people and causing an estimated NZ$15 billion ($12 billion) of damage.


* Feb 27, 2010 – CHILE – An 8.8 magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami in Chile kill more than 500 people and cause some $30 billion in damage, wrecking hundreds of thousands of homes and mangling highways and bridges.

* Jan 13, 2010 – HAITI – A 7.0 magnitude quake devastates Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and kills about 316,000 people. The United Nations estimates that 80,000 buildings in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas were destroyed.

* May 12, 2008 – CHINA – About 87,600 people are killed in Sichuan province after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hits the region. (Compiled by Kieran Guilbert, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience.

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