March 11, 2011
Nearly 18,900 are killed when a tsunami triggered by a massive magnitude 9.0 undersea quake slams into the northeast coast of Japan, triggering a nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi atomic plant.

October 23, 2011
An earthquake of 7.2 magnitude rocks eastern Turkey, leaving more than 600 dead and at least 4,150 injured.

January 12, 2010
Magnitude 7.0 quake hits Haiti, leaving between 250,000 and 300,000 dead.

April 14, 2010
A 6.9-magnitude quake hits Yushu county in northwest China's Qinghai province leaving 3,000 people dead and missing.

May 12, 2008
A quake measuring 8.0 hits China's southwest province of Sichuan, leaving more than 87,000 people dead or missing.

May 27, 2006
A powerful quake in Indonesia's Yogyakarta region kills 6,000 and leaves 1.5 million homeless.

October 8, 2005
An earthquake of 7.6 kills more than 75,000 people, the vast majority of them in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province and the Pakistani-administered zone of Kashmir state. Some 3.5 million are displaced.

December 26, 2004
A massive undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra island triggers a tsunami which kills 220,000 in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia.

December 26, 2003
A quake measuring 6.7 hits the Iranian city of Bam, killing at least 31,884 people and injuring 18,000.

January 26, 2001
A massive 7.7 earthquake hits the western Indian state of Gujarat, killing 25,000 people and injuring 166,000.

September 30, 1993
A 6.3-magnitude quake hits the western Indian state of Maharashtra, killing 7,601.

August 20, 1988
A magnitude 6.8 quake hits eastern Nepal, killing 721 people in Nepal and at least 277 in the neighbouring Indian state of Bihar.