Almost 140,000 people have died as a result of earthquakes over the last 12 years.
In June 1990 40,000 people lost their lives in a quake in Northwestern Iran. This measured 7.7 on the Richter Scale.
The world's biggest ever recorded earthquake occured on May 22nd, 1960, in Chile and measured 9.5 on the Richter scale. More than 2,000 people were killed. The biggest previous quake in India was on August 15th, 1950: it measured 8.5 and killed 532 people.
Other killer quakes of the past 12 years:
December 7, 1988: Soviet Armenia: 25,000 dead in a quake measured at between 6 and 7 points on the open-ended Richter scale.
June 21, 1990: Northwestern Iran: 40,000 killed in Ghilan and Zandjan provinces (magnitude 7.7).
July 16, 1990: Luzon, in the Philippines: 2,600 dead, with 3,441 injured (magnitude 7.7).
February 1, 1991: In Afghanistan and Pakistan: at least 1,500 dead (magnitude 6.8).
October 20, 1991: Northern India, at the foot of the Himalayas: 1,500 dead and around 3,000 injured (magnitude 6.1).
March 13, 1992: Eastern Turkey: 653 dead and missing, around 700 injured (magnitude 6.8).
October 12, 1992: Near Cairo, Egypt: 552 dead (magnitude 5.5).
December 12, 1992: Flores island, in Indonesia: more than 2,000 dead (magnitude 6.8).
September 30, 1993: In Maharashtra state, western India: 7,601 dead (magnitude 6.4).
June 6, 1994: Southern Colombia: 1,100 dead (magnitude 6.0).
January 17, 1995:Kobe-Osaka region of central Japan: 6,424 dead (magnitude 7.2).
May 27, 1995: Sakhalin island, in the Russian far east: 1,841 dead in the town of Neftgorsk (magnitude 7.5).
February 28, 1997: Ardebil region in northwestern Iran: 965 dead and 2,600 injured, according to an official toll. Aid agencies put the toll at 1,100 dead (magnitude 5.5).
May 10, 1997: Eastern Iran: 1,613 dead and 3,712 injured (magnitude 7.1).
February 4, 1998: Northeastern Takhar province of Afghanistan: between 2,300 and 4,000 dead according to different sources (magnitude 6.4).
May 30, 1998: Northeastern Afghanistan: almost 5,000 dead (magnitude 7.1).
July 17, 1998: Papua New Guinea: An underground earthquake out to sea causes a huge tsunami which washes over village communities leaving 2,123 dead.
Jan 25, 1999: Central-western Colombia: Coffee growing area devastated killing more than 1,230 people, and injuring 5,300 (magnitude 6.0).
August 17, 1999: Northwestern Turkey: 20,000 dead and 24,941 injured (magnitude 7.4).
Sept 7, 1999: Northern Athens: 138 dead (magnitude 5.9).
Sept 21, 1999: Taiwan: More than 2,400 dead, 11,000 injured, 100,000 homeless (magnitude 7.6).
Nov 12, 1999: Turkey: 894 dead, 4,948 injured (magnitude 7.2).
January 13, 2001: El Salvador: 724 dead, 4,421 wounded, one million homeless (magnitude 7.6 to 7.9).