70,000 people were killed or presumed dead on May 31, 1970, when a 7.9 earthquake hit Chimbote, Peru.
When 72,000 people were killed by a magnitude-7.2 earthquake in Messina, Italy, more than 40% of the city's population was killed. The December 28, 1908, quake caused a tsunami and was felt throughout Sicily.
86,000 people were killed on October 8, 2005, when a magnitude-7.6 earthquake slammed northern Pakistan. The heaviest damage occurred in parts of Kashmir, where entire villages were destroyed.
The magnitude-7.9 earthquake that struck eastern Sichuan, China on May 12, 2008, killed 87,587 people and was felt in parts of Bangladesh, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
A statue of Turkmenistan's former President Saparmurad Niyazov sits in front of the earthquake memorial in Ashgabat, 13 February 2007. Almost all the brick buildings in Ashgabat, collapsed and 110,000 people were killed when a magnitude-7.3 earthquake struck October 5, 1948.
A 7.9 earthquake in the Tokyo-Yokohama area of Japan killed 142,800. The quake, which took place on September 1, 1923, caused firestorms and generated a tsunami.
An estimated 200,000 people were killed when a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Haiyuan County, China, on December 16, 1920. Here, Muslims pray outside a mosque in Haiyuan in 2007.
227,898 people were killed on December 26, 2004, when a magnitude-9.1. quake hit Sumatra. This was the third-largest earthquake measured since 1900. Almost 2 million people were displaced by the earthquake and resulting tsunami.
On July 27, 1976, a magnitude-7.5 earthquake killed an estimated 242,769 people in Tangshan, China. Unofficial estimates put the toll at much higher, perhaps 655,000 deaths.
A magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, 2010. Official estimates put the death toll at 316,000 people, but other estimates suggest substantially lower casualties -- perhaps 230,000 or lower. More than 1 million people were displaced.
