Earthquakes have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in the last 100 years and improvements in technology have only slightly reduced the death toll.

14 April 2010:

At least 400 people die after a magnitude 6.9 earthquake strikes western China's Qinghai province.

27 February 2010:

A magnitude 8.8 earthquake hits central Chile north-east of the second city, Concepcion. Official figures put the number of people killed at 452, but many are still missing.

12 January 2010:

About 230,000 die in and around the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, as a 7.0 magnitude earthquake strikes the city.

30 September 2009:

At least 1,000 people die and at least 1,000 remain missing after an earthquake strikes the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

6 April 2009:

An earthquake hits the historic Italian city of L'Aquila, killing about 300 people.

29 October 2008:

Up to 300 people are killed in the Pakistani province of Balochistan after an earthquake of 6.4 magnitude struck 70km (45 miles) north of Quetta.

12 May 2008:

Up to 87,000 people are killed or missing and as many as 370,000 injured by an earthquake in just one county in China's south-western Sichuan province.

The tremor, measuring 7.8, struck 92km (57 miles) from the provincial capital Chengdu during the early afternoon.

15 August 2007:

At least 519 people are killed in Peru's coastal province of Ica, as a 7.90-magnitude undersea earthquake strikes about 145km (90 miles) south-east of the capital, Lima.

17 July 2006:

A 7.7 magnitude undersea earthquake triggers a tsunami that strikes a 200km (125-mile) stretch of the southern coast of Java, killing more than 650 people on the Indonesian island.

27 May 2006:

More than 5,700 people die when a magnitude 6.2 quake hits the Indonesian island of Java, devastating the city of Yogyakarta and surrounding areas.

1 April 2006:

Seventy people are killed and some 1,200 injured when an earthquake measuring 6.0 strikes a remote region of western Iran.

8 October 2005:

An earthquake measuring 7.6 strikes northern Pakistan and the disputed Kashmir region, killing more than 73,000 people and leaving millions homeless.

28 March 2005:

About 1,300 people are killed in an 8.7 magnitude quake off the coast of the Indonesian island of Nias, west of Sumatra.

22 February 2005:

Hundreds die in a 6.4 magnitude quake centred in a remote area near Zarand in Iran's Kerman province.

26 December 2004:

Hundreds of thousands are killed across Asia when an earthquake measuring 9.2 triggers sea surges that spread across the region.

24 February 2004:

At least 500 people die in an earthquake which strikes towns on Morocco's Mediterranean coast.

26 December 2003:

More than 26,000 people are killed when an earthquake destroys the historic city of Bam in southern Iran.

21 May 2003:

Algeria suffers its worst earthquake in more than two decades. More than 2,000 people die and more than 8,000 are injured in a quake felt across the sea in Spain.

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