Major earthquakes of the past 30 years

There were no immediate reports of fatalities, but quakes of this size in the region have caused massive destruction in the past.

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

— April 25, 2015: A 7.8 magnitude quake in Nepal kills almost 8,900 people and destroys about half a million homes. A massive aftershock with a magnitude of 7.3 follows in May, killing dozens more.

— 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 the Pakistani-administered zone of Kashmir state. 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.