Top 25 Deadliest earthquakes in history (With Pictures)

3. Izmit, Turkey

This was a 7.9-magnitude earthquake that struck northern Turkey on August 17, 1990, which lasted for only 3.7 seconds. The city of Izmit was very badly damaged and had a death toll of 17,127 and 43, 959 injured though other sources suggested that the actual figure for fatalities may be closer to 45,000 with a similar number of injured. Another report from September 1999 showed that the earthquake had destroyed 120,000 poorly-engineered houses, heavily damaged 50,000 houses; caused 2,000 buildings to collapse while 4,000 other buildings left severely damaged, and made more than 300,000 people homeless.