Below is a list of some of the world’s deadliest earthquakes in the past 30 years.

* August 11, 2012 : Twin earthquakes with a magnitude 6.3 and 6.4 leave 306 dead and more than 3,000 injured near the Iranian city of Tabriz.

* March 11, 2011 : Nearly 18,900 are killed when a tsunami triggered by a massive magnitude 9.0 undersea quake slams into the northeast coast of Japan, triggering a nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi atomic plant.

* October 23, 2011 : An earthquake of 7.2 magnitude rocks eastern Turkey, leaving more than 600 dead and at least 4,150 injured.

* January 12, 2010 : Magnitude 7.0 quake hits Haiti, leaving between 250,000 and 300,000 dead.

* April 14, 2010 : A 6.9-magnitude quake hits Yushu county in northwest China’s Qinghai province leaving 3,000 people dead and missing.

* May 12, 2008 : A quake measuring 8.0 hits China’s southwest province of Sichuan, leaving more than 87,000 people dead or missing.

* May 27, 2006 : A powerful quake in Indonesia’s Yogyakarta region kills 6,000 and leaves 1.5 million homeless.

* October 8, 2005 : An earthquake of 7.6 kills more than 75,000 people, the vast majority of them in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Some 3.5 million are displaced.

* March 28, 2005 : An earthquake on Indonesia’s Nias island off Sumatra leaves 900 dead.

* December 26, 2004 : A massive undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra island triggers a tsunami which kills 220,000 in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia.

* December 26, 2003 : A quake measuring 6.7 hits the Iranian city of Bam, killing at least 31,884 people and injuring 18,000.

* January 26, 2001 : A massive 7.7 earthquake hits the western Indian state of Gujarat, killing 25,000 people and injuring 166,000.

* September 30, 1993 : A 6.3-magnitude quake hits the western Indian state of Maharashtra, killing 7,601.

* October 20, 1991 : A quake measuring 6.6 hits the Himalayan foothills of Uttar Pradesh state in India, killing 768.

* August 20, 1988 : A magnitude 6.8 quake hits eastern Nepal, killing 721 people in Nepal and at least 277 in the neighbouring Indian state of Bihar.

* July 28, 1976 : A magnitude 7.8 quake hits Tangshan, in north China’s Hebei province. Officials said 242,000 people died, although some western sources said the toll was higher.

* January 15, 1934 : Magnitude 8.1 quake hits eastern Nepal and Bihar state in neighbouring India killing 10,700 people.

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