PARIS, Feb 17: With the estimated death toll still rising, the massive earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on Feb 6 ranks among the 10 deadliest in the past 100 years, with more than 41,000 dead as of Friday.
– 1976: 242,000 dead, China – An earthquake measuring 7.8 according to Chinese authorities (7.5 according to the US Geological Survey) strikes near the industrial city of Tangshan, in the northeastern province of Hebei. The official death toll is 242,000, but is believed to be significantly higher. Western experts put the death toll at 700,000, which would make it the second deadliest in human history, after the massive 1556 disaster that struck the northern province of Shaanxi, with estimates of more than 830,000 people.
– 2004: 230,000 dead, Southeast Asia: On December 26, 2004, a massive 9.1 magnitude earthquake strikes the coast of Sumatra, triggering a tsunami that kills more than 230,000 people across the region, including 170,000 in just Indonesia. Waves 30 meters (100 feet) high, traveling at 700 kilometers per hour (435 miles per hour), swallow everything in their path.
– 2010: 200,000 dead, Haiti – A magnitude 7 earthquake on January 12, 2010 devastates the capital Port-au-Prince and the surrounding region. The quake cut off the country from the rest of the world for 24 hours, killing more than 200,000 people, leaving 1.5 million homeless and destroying much of Haiti’s fragile infrastructure. In October of the same year, Haiti is also affected by a cholera epidemic introduced by the Nepalese peacekeepers who arrived after the earthquake. Kill more than 10,000 people.
– 1923: 142,000 dead, Japan – On September 1, 1923, two minutes before noon, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake hits Kanto in Japan. More than 142,000 people are killed in the earthquake and resulting fire, which destroys Tokyo.
– 1948: 110,000 dead, Turkmenistan – On October 5, 1948, at least 110,000 people are killed in a 7.3 magnitude earthquake in and around Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, then part of the Soviet Union.
– 2008: 87,000 dead, Sichuan – More than 87,000 people, including 5,335 school students, were killed or missing when a 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck southwest China’s Sichuan province on May 12, 2008. The quake causes outrage after news broke that 7,000 schools were badly damaged, prompting accusations of shoddy construction, cutting corners and possible corruption, especially as so many other nearby buildings stood their ground.
– 2005: 73,000 dead, Kashmir – An earthquake on October 8, 2005 killed more than 73,000 people, mostly in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province and Pakistani-administered Kashmir. Another 3.5 million are displaced.
– 1932: 70,000 dead, China – On December 25, 1932, an earthquake of magnitude 7.9 kills some 70,000 people in the province of Gansu, northwest China.
– 1970: 67,000 dead, Peru – On May 31, 1970, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake off the north coast of Peru leaves some 67,000 dead, many in the mountain city of Huaraz who were buried by a landslide.
– 2023: already 41,000 dead, Turkey and Syria – On February 6, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurs near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, near the border with Syria. Turkey’s biggest earthquake in nearly a century, followed by a magnitude 7.5 temblor, reduces entire neighborhoods of cities in southeastern Turkey and war-torn northern Syria to rubble. On February 17, officials and doctors said that 38,044 people had died in Turkey and 3,688 in Syria, bringing the confirmed total to 41,732.
(RSS/AFP)
