How estimated death tolls and damage are calculatedpublished at 08:47 BST
08:47 BST
Esme Stallard
Senior climate and science reporter
Soon after the earthquake struck the US Geological Survey (USGS) gave an estimate on the potential economic damage and fatalities in the region.
It has put that most likely potential loss of life between 10,000 and 100,000.
This is not an exact figure of the number of people that may have died – it could be higher or lower.
The USGS issues this figure to help emergency responders, government agencies and the media understand how potentially significant this event is and deploy resources effectively.
The organisation uses something called the PAGER system to calculate this figure.
Image source, Reuters
It looks at many factors including the size of the earthquake, how far below the surface the earthquake started, the amount of ground shaking and the population in the area that could have been exposed. And then based off of previous earthquakes with similar characteristics it gives us a figure.
But many other factors play into the potential injuries and deaths, including the quality of the buildings and the time of day.
If people are sleeping when earthquakes occur it increases the likelihood of not being able to evacuate.
The figure will get updated as more information comes through. But this event has been given a red alert – of which there are usually only 1-2 a year.