Earthquakes caused 88,070 fatalities in 2008, the highest number since 2004, the US Geological Survey reports.

The year’s strongest and most destructive earthquake — which had a magnitude of 7.9 and struck Eastern Sichuan, China — claimed at least 69,185 lives, injured 374,171 people and left 18,467 victims missing and are presumed dead.

Killer earthquakes also struck in 13 other countries — Algeria, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Peru, Russia, and Rwanda — across 4 continents.

Although 2008 saw only 12 earthquakes above a magnitude of 7 during 2008, compared with an annual average of 18, these resulted in high levels of fatalities because of where they struck. 2004, the worst year for earthquakes since the 1970s, killed 228,802 people — 227,898 of whom died in the resulting tsunami waves in Asia.

In total, more than 220,000 people died as a result of natural catastrophes in 2008.

Top image: Leaning apartment blocks, caused by an earthquake in Japan in 1964. NGDC.