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After the earthquake on Monday, more than 20,000 people died in Turkey and Syria, making it one of the deadliest since 2000.
By Thursday, the death toll in Turkey alone had surpassed 17,000, matching the figure from the country’s quake on August 17, 1999, which occurred roughly 60 miles outside of Istanbul and left over 17,500 people dead. The most recent death toll also exceeded the 16,000 fatalities in Japan in 2011, when an earthquake and tsunami of magnitude 8.9 struck the entire Pacific coastline on March 11.
According to statistics gathered by the United States Geological Survey, the following earthquakes have been the deadliest since 2000:
1. South Asia, 2004: around 298,000 deaths On December 26, 2004, South Asia was hit by the strongest earthquake in forty years, which caused tidal surges that could be felt as far away as Africa. Off the coast of Sumatra in northern Indonesia, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake occurred. India, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia saw the greatest number of fatalities.
2. Roughly 226,000 fatalities, Haiti, 2010: The Caribbean island was devastated by an earthquake on January 12, 2010, with a magnitude of 7.0, the strongest in the area in more than 200 years. Over a million people were left homeless after the earthquake destroyed Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.
3. Around 86,000 deaths 2005: Pakistan On October 8, 2005, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Kashmir, which is administered by Pakistan, killed more than 85,000 people, including those in neighbouring Afghanistan and India.
4. About 88,000 fatalities China, 2008: On May 12, 2008, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake that caused landslides and destroyed approximately 80% of the infrastructure at the epicentre struck a hilly area outside Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province.
5. 33,000 fatalities, Iran, 2003: More than 30,000 people were killed and up to 90% of the city’s residential sections were destroyed when a magnitude 6.6 earthquake shook the ancient city of Bam in southeast Iran. Water and electrical supplies were disrupted by aftershocks. Rescue efforts were hours behind schedule, leaving stranded people outside in the bitter cold.
6. 20,000 deaths or so in India in 2001: A magnitude 7.6 earthquake that occurred in January killed up to 20,000 people in the western state of Gujarat