Turkey and Syria are reeling as the death toll continues to climb after Monday's magnitude 7.8 earthquake, with nearly 8,000 people already reported dead across the two countries.
In comparison with other large earthquakes around the world, the 2011 Japan quake and tsunami — in which more than 22,000 people were killed or went missing — registered a magnitude of 9.1.
That incident left widespread destruction in its wake after walls of water engulfed entire towns, dragged houses onto highways and caused the country’s worst nuclear disaster on record.
A year before, in 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Haiti is estimated to have killed between 220,000 to 300,000. A further 300,000 people were injured, and millions were displaced.
In 2004, an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 9.1 struck the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, causing a tsunami that left 227,898 people dead or listed as missing and presumed dead.
The strongest earthquake on record was a magnitude 9.5 in Chile in 1960, according to the United States Geological Survey.
