Earthquake in Turkey was among the ten deadliest in the last 100 years
As the death toll continues to rise, the strong earthquake that struck southeast Turkey and northwest Syria on February 6 is among the 10 deadliest earthquakes in the last 100 years. As of Friday, it has claimed the lives of more than 41,000 people.
The Daily Sabah edition with AFP cite this terrible ten.
1976: China
An earthquake of magnitude 7.8, according to the Chinese authorities (7.5 according to the US Geological Survey), occurred near the industrial city of Tangshan in the northeast of Hebei Province. The official death toll is 242,000, but it is believed to be significantly higher.
Western experts estimated the death toll at 700,000, which would make it the second deadliest in human history after the huge disaster of 1556 that struck the north of Shaanxi Province, killing more than 830,000 people.
2004: earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia
On December 26, 2004, a strong earthquake of magnitude 9.1 occurred off the coast of Sumatra, causing a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people throughout the region, including 170,000 in Indonesia alone. Waves 30 meters (100 feet) high, moving at a speed of 700 kilometers per hour (435 miles per hour), absorbed everything in their path.
2010: Haiti
An earthquake of magnitude 7.0 on January 12, 2010 destroyed the capital of Port-au-Prince and its surroundings. The earthquake cut the country off 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.
1923: Japan
On September 1, 1923, two minutes before noon, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake shook Kanto in Japan. More than 142,000 people died as a result of the earthquake, which sparked a fire that destroyed Tokyo.
1948: Turkmenistan
On October 6, 1948, at least 110,000 people died in a 7.3 magnitude earthquake around Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan.
2008: China
More than 87,000 people were killed or missing when a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck southwest China's Sichuan Province on May 12, 2008.
2005: Kashmir
The earthquake of October 8, 2005 claimed more than 73,000 lives, mainly in the Northwestern Border Province of Pakistan and in the Pakistan-controlled Kashmir zone. Another 3.5 million people were displaced due to the disaster.
1932: China
On December 25, 1932, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake killed about 70,000 people in Gansu Province in northwest China.
1970: Peru
On May 31, 1970, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake off the northern coast of Peru killed about 67,000 people. Numerous victims are reported in the mountain town of Huaras, which was buried under a mudflow.
2023: Turkey and Syria
The twin earthquakes of magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 that struck the Turkish provinces of Kahramanmarash, Pazarcik and Elbistan on February 6, killing more than 41,000 people, were the strongest earthquakes in Turkey in almost a century.
On February 17, the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said 38,044 people had died in Turkey, while the official death toll in Syria is 3,688, bringing the confirmed total death toll to 41,732.
According to the UN relief chief Martin Griffiths, this is "the worst event" in a century, and according to the World Health Organization (WHO) — "the worst natural disaster in Europe in the 21st century."
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