A bad year for earthquakes, not as bad as some

A young girl is rescued from the rubble of a building in Izmit in August

GALLERY • The story of a rescue from Turkey's August 17 quake • Scenes of hope... and destruction

DISCUSSION • Highlights from our message board archive • Earthquake in Turkey

(CNN) -- An average year for earthquakes contains 18 major quakes (magnitude 7.0 to 7.9) and one great quake (8.0 or higher), according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

So 1999, which had 17 major quakes and no great quakes, was just below average.

The year was notable, however, for the number of earthquake-related deaths -- 21,987 by the USGS's latest count -- among them an estimated 17,000 in a temblor that shook eastern Turkey on August 17, destroying hundreds of buildings and leaving thousands of survivors homeless.

Less than three months later, on November 12, another strong earthquake rocked Turkey, this time in the northwest near the Black Sea. The temblor killed at least 452 people and contributed to a new wave of homeless survivors.

Duzce residents search for survivors in the aftermath of the November 12 quake

The earthquake year began with a temblor that rocked Colombia on January 25, the country's worst natural disaster in almost 15 years. Nearly 1,500 people were killed. An earthquake on September 7 in Athens, Greece, killed at least 122 people. Just two weeks later a major quake rocked Taiwan, killing more than 2,300 people. It was the strongest quake on the island in more than a decade. At the end of September, at least 18 people were killed in a quake in southern Mexico.

Compared to other years, though, 1999 was awful but not as awful in the number of earthquake-related deaths as, say, 1990 in which 42,000 people died, or 1988 that saw 57,500 people killed. And it was certainly not as appalling as 1976 when one quake alone in Tianjin, China, killed an estimated 255,000 people.

Destructive quakes like the ones in Turkey and Taiwan typically raise worldwide questions about building codes and emergency regulations in earthquake-prone areas. Turkey's government, for example, was criticized for its slow response to the August disaster -- and apparently made an effort to not repeat its mistakes during the November quake.

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