March 2011(01 of15)
Open Image ModalA magnitude 8.9 quake strikes off the northeast coast of Japan, sending a tsunami across the Pacific and killing a still-undetermined number of people.
\r\nCaption: Vehicles are crushed by a collapsed wall at a carpark in Mito city, in Ibaraki prefecture on March 11, 2011, after a massive earthquake rocked Japan. (JIJI PRESS/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty )
October 2011(02 of15)
Open Image ModalA 7.1 magnitud earthquake strikes eastern Turkey near the city of Van. More than 604 people are kiled, more than 4,100 injured.
\r\n\r\nCaption: Turkish rescue workers search for survivors in the rubble of a collapsed hotel in Van, Turkey, Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011. (AP Photo/Bertan Ayduk)\r\n\r\n (credit:AP)
October 2010(03 of15)
Open Image ModalA volcanic eruption and a tsunami kill more than 500 people in Indonesia.
\nCaption: Misbah, sits with her two year old daughter Sylvia in her collapsed house at Tumalei village in the Metawai islands, West Sumatra, on October 31, 2010. (BAY ISMOYO/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:BAY ISMOYO/AFP/Getty Images)
February 2010(04 of15)
Open Image ModalA 8.8 magnitude quake shakes Chile, generating a tsunami and killing 524 people.
\r\nCaption: A man removes earthquake debris from his home near a ship sitting in the middle of the road in Talcahuano, Chile, on Sunday, March 7, 2010. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo) (credit:AP)
September 2009(05 of15)
Open Image ModalA magnitude 8.0 earthquake unleashes tsunamis of up to 40 feet (12 meters) and killing 194 people in the South Pacific, including 34 in American Samoa.
\r\nCaption: This photo taken on September 29, 2009, after an 8.0-magnitude quake and tsunami struck in the early morning offshore shows a damaged building and truck in Pago Pago, on American Samoa. (JOHN NEWTON/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:JOHN NEWTON/AFP/Getty Images)
September 2007(06 of15)
Open Image ModalA 7.8 magnitude earthquake rattles Sumatra Island, triggering regional tsunami alerts and damaging scores of buildings.
\r\nCaption: Vehicles pass a damaged road littered with cracks in Ketahun, on 16 September, 2007, four days after the first massive temblor rocked the region. (ADEK BERRY/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:ADEK BERRY/AFP/Getty Images)
September 2007(07 of15)
Open Image ModalAn earthquake measured at a magnitude of 8.4 near Sumatra triggers a wave in the coastal city of Padang. The tremor kills at least 25 people and injures around 50.
\r\nCaption: A man rides his bicycle past a collapsed house in Lubuk Pinang, Muko Muko, on 16 September, 2007. (ADEK BERRY/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:ADEK BERRY/AFP/Getty Images)
April 2007(08 of15)
Open Image ModalAt least 28 people in the Solomon Islands die in a tsunami and earthquake measured at a magnitude of 8.1.
\r\nCaption: Children walk through their destroyed homes as aid starts arriving in Gizo after it was hit by a tsunami earlier in the week, on 07 April, 2007. (WILLIAM WEST/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:WILLIAM WEST/AFP/Getty Images)
July 2006(09 of15)
Open Image ModalA magnitude 6.1 earthquake triggers a tsunami off Java Island\'s southern coast, killing at least 600 people.
\r\nCaption: A hotel owner sits next to rubbles in Pangandaran, 19 July, 2006, after a earthquake-triggered tsunami hit south coast of Java island, on 17 July. (BAY ISMOYO/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:BAY ISMOYO/AFP/Getty Images)
March 2005(10 of15)
Open Image ModalA magnitude 8.6 quake in northern Sumatra kills about 1,300 people.
\r\nCaption: People mourn the loss of members of their family on March 31, 2005, in Gunungsitoli on the Island of Nias, Indonesia, after a massive earthquake struck on March 28. (Ian Waldie/Getty Images) (credit:Ian Waldie/Getty Images)
December 2004(11 of15)
Open Image ModalAn Indian Ocean tsunami, triggered by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, kills 230,000 in a dozen countries.
\r\nCaption: Hands stretch out for bags food as it is given out at a refugee camp for people who have become homeless after a massive tsunami wave swept across coastal Sri Lanka on December 31, 2004, in Tangalle, Sri Lanka. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images) (credit:Getty )
December 2003(12 of15)
Open Image ModalA 6.6 magnitude earthquake strikes the Iranian city of Ban in the southeastern Kerman province, killing more than 26,271 people and injuring 30,000.
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An elderly Iranian woman gestures in front of the ruins of the quake-devastated Iranian city of Bam. (MARTIN BUREAU/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:MARTIN BUREAU/AFP/Getty Images)
August 1976(13 of15)
Open Image ModalA magnitude 8.0 earthquake hits near the islands of Mindanao and Sulu in the Philippines, generating a tsunami and leaving at least 5,000 dead.
\r\nCaption: Aerial views of damaged buildings in Cotobato City, Philippines, in August 1976. (AP Photo) (credit:AP Photo)
May 1960(14 of15)
Open Image ModalA magnitude 9.5 earthquake in southern Chile and ensuing tsunami kill at least 1,716 people.
\r\nCaption: A soldier stands guard nearrubble strewn around an electrical shop which was shattered by an earthquake in Concepcion, Chile, on May 24, 1960. (AP Photo) (credit:AP Photo)
March 1964(15 of15)
Open Image ModalA 9.2 magnitude earthquake in Prince William Sound, Alaska, and the resulting tsunami kill 131 people.
\r\nCaption: A photographer looks over wreckage as smoke rises in the background from burning oil storage tanks at Valdez, Alaska, on March 29, 1964. (AP Photo) (credit:AP Photo)