In October 2005, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck the western part of the Kashmir region administered by Pakistan, as well as some areas of Kashmir on this side of the LoC. The disaster claimed the lives of 86,000 people and left just as many injured, while millions were displaced.
The early 2000s saw a spate of devastating earthquakes. In December 2004, a quake with a magnitude of 9.3, the third most powerful one ever recorded, struck with an epicenter just off the western coast of Indonesia.
The jolt provoked a giant 30-meter-high tsunami that devastated communities along the coasts of the Indian Ocean, killing a total of 227,898 people in 14 countries, thus making it the deadliest natural disaster recorded in history. In addition to the massive death toll, infrastructure was destroyed and economic activity was disrupted throughout coastal regions such as Indonesia’s Aceh and India’s Tamil Nadu provinces. The earthquake was so powerful that it even triggered smaller seismic events as far away as Alaska.
In May 2008, a powerful earthquake struck the province of Sichuan in southwestern China. Having a magnitude of 8.0, the quake caused the largest number of geohazards ever recorded, including some 200,000 landslides. It was felt as far away as Beijing and Shanghai, as well as in Thailand and Vietnam.
The disaster claimed over 80,000 lives and left almost 5 million people homeless, making it the deadliest earthquake in China since 1976.