Photo by neilparekh

Over the past 10-15 years, earthquakes have been the culprits to some of the highest death tolls and costs in damages in all of history. Not only can a single earth quake take hundreds of thousands of lives, but it can also leave an entire region decimated and beyond the point of repair. These are some of the most disastrous modern day earthquakes to strike.

7. 01/26/2001 – India

Magnitude: 7.7 Death Toll: 20,023

In a deadly massacre of destruction that lasted for just over two minutes, the towns of Ahmedabad and Bhuj in India were some of the hardest struck by this 7.7 earthquake that took the lives of more than 20,000. Of those who were left standing once the earthquake completed, more than 150,000 were injured and and more than half a million people were left homeless in the aftermath. The property damage of the earthquake has been estimated at a whopping $5.5 billion. It is estimated that nearly 400,000 homes were destroyed in the destruction. It has been reported that shock waves drifted as far as 700 kilometers, and over twenty districts were negatively affected.