A powerful 7.0-magnitude quake has rocked the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti, toppling buildings and causing widespread damage and panic.
Here is a chronology of some of the major quakes and tsunamis around the world in recent years:
-- September 30, 2009: A 7.6-magnitude earthquake strikes the Indonesian island of Sumatra, killing more than 1,100 people.
-- September 29, 2009: A massive tsunami sparked by an 8.0-magnitude earthquake flattens villages and resorts in Samoa and the neighbouring Pacific islands of American Samoa and northern Tonga, killing 186 people.
-- September 2, 2009: A 7.0-magnitude quake rocks Indonesia's main island of Java, killing 123 people and triggering landslides.
-- April 6, 2009: A quake with a magnitude of 5.8 on the Richter scale kills almost 300 people in the Italian town of L'Aquila and its vicinity.
-- October 29, 2008: A 6.4-magnitude quake strikes southwest Pakistan killing up to 300 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless.
-- May 12, 2008: A 8.0-magnitude quake hits China's southwest province of Sichuan, leaving more than 87,000 people dead or missing.
-- February 3, 2008: A quake with a magnitude of 6.1 on the Richter scale strikes eastern Congo and western Rwanda, killing 45 people and leaving thousands homeless.
-- April 2, 2007: An 8.0-magnitude quake in the Western Solomon Islands triggers a tsunami that kills more than 50 people and displaces thousands.
-- March 6, 2007: A 6.3-magnitude quake hits the Indonesian island of Sumatra, flattening buildings and killing at least 70 people.
-- July 17, 2006: A 7.7-magnitude undersea quake strikes off Indonesia's Java island, unleashing a tsunami, killing at least 596, injuring more than 9,500 and displacing around 74,000.
-- May 27, 2006: A 6.3-magnitude quake in Indonesia's Yogyakarta region kills 6,000 and leaves 1.5 million homeless.
-- October 8, 2005: An 7.6-magnitude quake kills more than 75,000 people, most of them in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province and the Pakistani-administered zone of Kashmir state. Some 3.5 million are displaced.
-- March 28, 2005: An 8.6-magnitude quake on Indonesia's Nias island off Sumatra leaves at least 900 dead.
-- December 26, 2004: A 9.1-magnitude undersea quake off the coast of Sumatra island triggers a tsunami that kills 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia.
-- December 26, 2003: A 6.7-magnitude quake hits the Iranian city of Bam, killing at least 31,884 people and injuring 18,000.
-- January 26, 2001: A massive quake hits the western Indian state of Gujarat, killing 25,000 people and injuring 166,000.
