Earthquakes killed 88,070 people in 2008, the highest figure since 2004, reports the U.S. Geological Survey and the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The year's strongest quake was in Sichuan, China, on May 12. At least 69,185 people were killed, 18,467 left missing and presumed dead, and 374,171 injured as a result of the magnitude-7.9 quake.
The deadliest year for earthquakes since the 1970s was 2004. That year, 228,802 were killed as a result of quakes, the majority -- 227,898 -- in Asia because of tsunami waves generated by an undersea earthquake near Indonesia on Dec. 26.
The deadliest quake in the past four centuries was on Aug. 7, 1976, in Tangshan, China. Although the official death figure was 255,000, the estimated toll has been put as high as 655,000.
In 2008, killer quakes hit 13 other countries on four continents, including Algeria, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Peru, Russia and Rwanda.
The strongest quakes in the USA struck Alaska's Aleutian Islands on April 15 and May 1. Both were magnitude 6.6. Because the islands are sparsely populated, there was no damage.
The next-largest was a magnitude-6.0 quake on Feb. 21 near Wells, Nev., which injured three people and heavily damaged 20 buildings.
A magnitude-5.4 temblor struck southeastern Illinois on April 18. It caused little damage but was felt throughout the central USA.
Though the U.S. Geological Survey estimates that several million earthquakes occur worldwide each year, most are too small or too remote to be detected. Location and depth, as well as the seismic stability of buildings and roads, determine how much damage they do.
For the list of 2008 earthquake statistics, visit neic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/eq_depot/2008.
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