History of quakes

August 15, 2007: At least 519 people are killed in Peru's coastal province of Ica.

October 8, 2005: An earthquake measuring 7.6 strikes northern Pakistan, killing more than 73,000 people.

December 26, 2004: Some 230,000 are killed across Asia when an earthquake measuring 8.9 triggers sea surges that spread across the region.

December 26, 2003: More than 26,000 people are killed when an earthquake destroys the historic city of Bam in Iran.

January 26, 2001: An earthquake measuring magnitude 7.9 devastates much of Gujarat state in north-western India, killing nearly 20,000 people.

June 21, 1990: Around 40,000 people die in a tremor in the northern Iranian province of Gilan.

December 7, 1988: An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale devastates north-west Armenia, killing 25,000 people.

May 31, 1970: An earthquake high in the Peruvian Andes triggers a landslide burying the town of Yungay and killing 66,000 people.

May 22, 1960: The world's strongest recorded earthquake devastates Chile, with a eading of 9.5 on the Richter scale. A tsunami 30ft high eliminates entire villages in Chile and kills 61 in Hawaii.

September 1, 1923: The Great Kanto earthquake, with its epicentre just outside Tokyo, claims the lives of 142,800 people.

April 18, 1906: San Francisco is hit by a series of violent shocks which last up to a minute. Between 700 and 3,000 people die either from collapsing buildings or in the subsequent fire.