1988 Armenian earthquake

Devastating earthquake in Armenian SSR, USSR October 2024 1988 Armenian earthquake 1988-12-07 07:41:27 417441 iscgem417441 1988 12 7 y 11:41:27 AMT Armenia Armenia 40.84 44.27 Spitak 100 Green pog.svg Armenia 40.79 43.85 Leninakan 100 bottom Green pog.svg Armenia 40.81 44.49 Kirovakan 100 right Green pog.svg Armenia 40.18 44.52 Yerevan 100 Green pog.svg Armenia 40.987 44.185 Bullseye1.png 40 yes 250 right < 20 secondsWood Berrill Gillon North 1993 256 6.8 s y 10 XCisternas Philip Bousquet Cara 1989 675 5 km on 40.987 N 44.185 E Nalband, Armenian SSR, Soviet Union (present-day Shirakamut, Lori Province, Armenia)Harutyunyan Arpi Still Recovering: A visit to the 1988 "center of the epicenter" http://www.armenianow.com/features/7913/still_recovering_a_visit_to_the_19 March 7, 2014 ArmeniaNow December 7, 2007 July 10, 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20200710194227/https://www.armenianow.com/features/7913/still_recovering_a_visit_to_the_19 dead Thrust Soviet Union US$16.2 billion (equivalent to $US 16.2 1988 1 c billion in US)M 6.8 – 10 km N of Gogaran, Armenia 1988 iscgem417441 0.6–0.7 g at Spitak (est)Wood Berrill Gillon North 1993 259 5.8 l y December 7 at 11:45 AMT 25,000 dead (official figure)30,000–40,000 dead (estimates)REPORT ON International Relief Assistance For the Earthquake of 7 December 1988 in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia https://desastres.unanleon.edu.ni/pdf/2004/mayo/pdf/eng/DOC46/DOC46.HTM Office of the United Nations Disaster Relief Coordinator https://web.archive.org/web/20261003111629/https://desastres.unanleon.edu.ni/pdf/2004/mayo/pdf/eng/DOC46/doc46-a.pdf 3 October 2026 Geneva 1 February 1989 Although the final death toll cannot be determined precisely, the evaluation mission believes that a conservative estimate would be in the range of 30,000 to 35,000. liveMikayelyan Hrant Сколько на самом деле погибло людей в результате спитакского землетрясения? https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/blogs/83781/posts/30990 Caucasian Knot December 9, 2017 https://web.archive.org/web/20190227145734/https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/blogs/83781/posts/30990 February 27, 2019 ru Так что общее число погибших порядка 30-40 тысяч человек не может считаться преувеличением. 31,000–130,000 injured An earthquake occurred in northern Armenia (then Armenian SSR, as part of the Soviet Union) on 7 December, 1988, at 11:41 local time 07:41 UTC with a surface-wave magnitude of 6.8 and a maximum MSK intensity of X (Devastating). The region is vulnerable to large and destructive earthquakes and is part of a larger active seismic belt that stretches from the Alps to the Himalayas. Activity in the area is associated with tectonic plate boundary interaction and the source of the event was slip on a thrust fault just to the north of Spitak. The complex incident ruptured multiple faults, with a strike-slip event occurring shortly after the initiation of the mainshock. Between 25,000 and 50,000 people were killed and up to 130,000 were injured. Seismologists thoroughly studied the effects of the Spitak event, including the mainshock and aftershock fault rupture mechanisms, and were on site setting up temporary seismometers before the end of 1988. Earthquake engineering experts scrutinized building construction styles and found fault in the poorly constructed apartments and other buildings that were built during the Era of Stagnation under the rule of Leonid Brezhnev. The cities of Spitak, Leninakan (Gyumri) and Kirovakan (Vanadzor) were greatly affected with large losses of life and devastating effects to buildings and other structures. A number of the smaller outlying villages away from the larger population centers were also severely affected. In a sign of the easing tensions of the Cold War, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev formally asked the United States for humanitarian help within a few days of the earthquake, the first such request since the late 1940s. One hundred and thirteen countries sent substantial amounts of humanitarian aid to the Soviet Union in the form of rescue equipment, search teams and medical supplies. Private donations and assistance from non-governmental organizations also had a large part of the international effort. While transporting some of these supplies to the region, a Soviet aircraft carrying 9 crew members and 69 military personnel, and a transport plane from Yugoslavia, were both destroyed in separate incidents. In support of the relief effort, recording artists united to produce several music-related contributions for the victims of the quake. A song was produced by a duo of French composers (including Charles Aznavour) and a studio album that featured songs donated by mainstream rock bands was released from the Rock Aid Armenia effort by the British music industry. Political background History of Armenia Karabakh movement First Nagorno-Karabakh War Beginning with late 1987 the Caucasus region was experiencing a surge in political turmoil with large and near constant demonstrations being held in the capital of Yerevan beginning in February 1988. For the fifteen months prior to the earthquake and at times up to hundreds of thousands of protesters, represented by the Karabakh Committee, were demanding both democracy and the unification of Nagorno-Karabakh (administered by Soviet Azerbaijan but disputed autonomous territory with a 76% Armenian majority and a 23% Azerbaijani minority in 1989)Miller, Donald E. and Lorna Touryan Miller. Armenia: Portraits of Survival and Hope. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003 p. 7 0-520-23492-8 in the mountains of the Karabakh region. The unrest and the opposition movement began in September 1988 with negotiations between the Karabakh Committee and Gorbachev taking place throughout most of 1989. The relationship between the Soviet authorities and the Armenian society took a turn for the worse in March and the developments climaxed in November when a state of emergency was declared, along with a nighttime curfew, and a mass movement of up to 50,000 Armenians fleeing ethnic violence in events such as the Sumgait pogrom arrived from Azerbaijan.Verluise 1995 3–5, 16–17 Earthquake Alpide belt thumb|ShakeMap produced by the United States Geological Survey for the mainshock illustrating strong ground motion The source of the event was a fault rupture 40 km us south of the Caucasus Mountains, a mountain range that has been produced by the convergence of the Arabian and the Eurasian tectonic plates. The range is situated along an active seismic belt that stretches from the Alps in southern Europe to the Himalayas in Asia. The seismicity along this belt is marked by frequent major earthquakes from the Aegean Sea, through Turkey and Iran, and into Afghanistan. Though the recurrence of seismic events in Armenia does not reach the high frequency that is seen in other segments of this zone, rapid crustal deformation there is associated with active thrust faulting and volcanic activity. Mount Ararat, a 5137 m on dormant volcano, lies 100 km on to the south of the quake's epicenter in Turkey.Earthquakes: 2006 Centennial Update – The 1906 Big One Bolt Bruce Bruce Bolt 978-0-7167-7548-5 Fifth W. H. Freeman and Company 65–67 August 2005 The earthquake occurred along a known 60 km on thrust fault striking parallel to the Caucasus range and dipping to the north-northeast. Bruce Bolt, a seismologist and a professor of earth and planetary science at the University of California, Berkeley, walked the length of the fault scarp in 1992 and found that the vertical displacement measured 1 m on ft along most of the length with the southwest end reaching 1.6 m on ft. During the earthquake, the northeast-facing side of the Spitak section rode up and over the southwest-facing side. Waveform modeling established that the faulting originated at a depth of 5 km on with the epicenter on the Alavar thrust fault on the slopes of the Lesser Caucasus mountains north of Mount Aragats. The mainshock produced surface rupture and propagated to the west with a separate strike-slip sub-event occurring two seconds later that propagated to the southeast. Going westward the fault split into two branches, a north-dipping reverse fault (north branch) and a right slip fault (south branch), but neither produced surface rupture. A total of five sub-events occurred in the first eleven seconds and an aftershock measuring 5.8 (local magnitude) occurred four minutes and twenty seconds later.Cisternas Philip Bousquet Cara 1989 676Active Faults of the World https://books.google.com/books?id=aQUgAwAAQBAJ Yeats Robert 2012 Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19085-5 310 Damage Earthquake-resistant structures thumb|Building damage in Leninakan Some of the strongest shaking occurred in industrial areas with chemical and food processing plants, electrical substations, and power plants. The Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant, around 75 km on from the epicenter, experienced only minor shaking and no damage occurred there, but was eventually closed for a period of six years due to vulnerability concerns. It was reopened in 1995 in order to relieve Armenia of an energy crisis caused by the blockade imposed by Turkey and Azerbaijan against Armenia in response to the Karabakh Movement. Initially criticism mounted pointing out the lack of training, political instability in the Caucasus region, and accusations that the plant was of inadequate design.Armenia's Nuclear Risk; Antiquated Power Station to Be Reopened Despite Wide Concerns About Safety https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/05/28/armenias-nuclear-risk/b68bf42e-8c3d-4d90-a791-c440bb4f8ca2/ https://web.archive.org/web/20171103034658/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/05/28/armenias-nuclear-risk/b68bf42e-8c3d-4d90-a791-c440bb4f8ca2/ dead November 3, 2017 Fred Hiatt Fred Hiatt May 28, 1995 The Washington Post August 13, 2012 Many buildings did not hold up to the shaking of the earthquake and those that did collapse often lacked any survival space, but lack of effective medical care and poor planning also contributed to the substantial scope of the disaster. Buildings that did not collapse featured well-maintained masonry and skeletal components that were joined adequately in a way that allowed for the building to resist seismic waves. Most bridges and tunnels and other public infrastructure withstood the earthquake but hospitals did not fare well. Most collapsed, killing two-thirds of their doctors, destroying equipment and medicine, and reducing the capacity to handle the critical medical needs in the region.Verluise 1995 26, 27 The Soviet news media and government officials soon began to discuss the apparent substandard construction styles that had caused so many of Armenia's buildings to collapse. Gorbachev, in a TV interview several weeks after his expedited return from New York City, said that the concrete blocks had been built with more than enough sand but too little concrete, and suggested that the concrete had been stolen. Leonid Bibin, deputy chairman of the state building committee, stated that many newer homes collapsed as well and that he was beginning an investigation into the matter and that criminal charges would be brought. The official communist party newspaper Pravda said that poor construction, like other issues of neglect in the Soviet system, could be blamed on the Era of Stagnation from the era of Leonid Brezhnev. A team of earthquake and engineering experts from the United States spent a period of time in Armenia in December 1988 and January 1989. The group, including a structural engineer who specialized in seismic-resistant designs, agreed that building inadequacies were the primary reason why the strong (but not huge) earthquake was so damaging, although the freezing temperatures also played a role in the unusually high death toll. The earthquake death toll was by far the highest worldwide in the 1980shttps://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/graphs.html https://web.archive.org/web/20060925043219/http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/graphs.html dead September 25, 2006 USGS Earthquake Hazards Program: Earthquake Facts and Statistics Graphs September 25, 2006 May 29, 2018 and third-highest worldwide in the period 1971–2003https://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eq_depot/byyear.html https://web.archive.org/web/20060925223149/http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eq_depot/byyear.html dead September 25, 2006 Earthquake Hazards Program: Largest and Deadliest Earthquakes by Year September 25, 2006 May 29, 2018https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/feb/28/deadliest-earthquakes-strongest-data All the deadliest and strongest earthquakes since 1900, including coordinates Stoddard Katy January 13, 2010 The Guardian May 29, 2018 (33 years). The engineers who scrutinized the damaged buildings and the rescue workers who had dismantled the buildings while extricating survivors ascribe both design shortcomings and improper construction methods for the failure of the buildings. The Soviets had modified their construction style to accommodate the known seismic risk in the area, but they acknowledged to the team that many of the buildings were not built to withstand an earthquake of that magnitude. An engineer with the team stated that the regulations for the area mandated that buildings be required to stand up against events measuring seven or eight on the twelve-degree Medvedev–Sponheuer–Karnik scale. The earthquake's effects were assessed at ten on that seismic scale.Lessons and questions emerge from Armenian quake https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-7013750.html Richard Monastersky January 21, 1989 2014-06-11 https://web.archive.org/web/20140611074951/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-7013750.html Science News HighBeam Research subscription usurped September 2, 2012 thumb|Severely damaged masonry buildings in Spitak The three cities closest to the fault rupture experienced different levels of damage. Both Leninakan and Kirovakan were roughly equidistant from the shock, yet Leninakan had greater damage. This may be explained by a 300 - 400 m on sedimentary layer that is present beneath the city. The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute's team compared building damage in each city and observed similar results when comparing stone buildings four stories or less in height, but for taller frame-stone buildings, 62% were destroyed at Leninakan while only 23% collapsed at Kirovakan. While on-site during aftershock monitoring, the US research team verified the presence of soil amplification effects when pronounced differences in readings were observed when compared with nearby rock sites. Uneven distribution of the seismic energy may have also contributed to the fluctuation in damage.Wood Berrill Gillon North 1993 265 In late December the last of the survivors that were able to be extricated were pulled from the fallen buildings, rescue operations ceased, and the cleanup began, beginning with the destruction of buildings that were too heavily damaged to be repaired. Six friends were in the basement of a nine-story building relocating barrels when it came down around them on December 7. Their injuries were minor, but one person suffered a broken arm. They supposedly sustained themselves on the food supplies—fruit salad, pickles, and smoked ham—that were available in the basement for 35 days before their rescue in January, but this turned out to be a hoax.6 Found Alive in Armenia 35 Days After Quake https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/13/world/6-found-alive-in-armenia-35-days-after-quake.html January 13, 1989 Craig R. Whitney The New York Times September 9, 2012Fake News, Soviet-Style: The Armenian Earthquake Rescue That Was Too Good To Be True https://www.rferl.org/a/fake-news-soviet-style-the-armenian-earthquake-rescue-that-was-too-good-to-be-true/29643951.html December 7, 2018 Pete Baumgartner RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty December 8, 2018 Aftershocks Seismic source The area where Armenia lies is of interest to seismologists and geologists because of the relatively early stage of continental collision occurring there and because the earthquake's strong aftershock sequence and significant surface faulting presented scientists with an environment to study reverse faulting. Twelve days after the mainshock a French-Soviet team installed a temporary seismic network in the epicentral area to record aftershock activity (a separate expedition from the United States also visited the site). The initial portion of work included nearly a full week setting up the seismometers and optimizing their operation and, with that complete, two full weeks of continuous operation was then completed with twenty six seismometers covering an area over 1,500 km2. The final stage concluded with seven weeks (through the end of February 1989) of continued monitoring with a reduced capacity of twenty units.Dorbath Dorbath Rivera Fuenzalida 1992 309–311 The instrumentation included ten smoked paper analog seismometers that were configured to allow for 48 hours of continuous single-component data recording. Six digital recorders built by the Institut de Physique du Globe de Strasbourg were also used to record signals from three-component seismometers. Eight of the selected sites were equipped with a vertical component velocity transducer along with an FM telemetry link to transfer data back to a central station where a three-component unit was stationed. There the seismic signals were digitized, along with an internal time signal and an external DCF77 time signal, and stored on magnetic tape. The tapes were then played back and the P wave and S wave arrival times were used to automatically determine aftershock locations. Approximately two hundred aftershocks were recorded each day for the first several days of the expedition and at the end of the recording period in February the equipment was still picking up around 100 shocks per day. The team then set out to determine an accurate velocity model using data from the more accurate telemetry network. The Soviet geophysicists detonated 100 kilograms of TNT in a hole drilled near the mainshock epicenter and the resulting shock waves were detected and used to help pinpoint a more accurate crustal velocity value of 5.3 to 5.4 km/s. The epicenters of the recorded aftershocks formed a relatively narrow 50 km on band. On the east end the events were shallow while on the western side, where the majority of the larger aftershocks were concentrated, the hypocenters were up to 14 km on deep. The shocks at the southeastern segment indicated right-lateral strike-slip movement along a nearly vertical fault and may have been related to the Alavar fault. Moving westward closer to the central segments though, a transition of the fault type was becoming apparent, where an almost equal distribution of reverse fault mechanisms was observed as the strike-slip type. The east-central segment coincided with the surface breaks between Spitak and Gekhasar, while the west-central portion's break was concealed under an anticline and was not visible at the surface. Along the western segments, the fault split into two branches with one to the southwest and the other to the northwest.Dorbath Dorbath Rivera Fuenzalida 1992 312, 318, 321 Liquefaction Soil mechanics Slope stability analysis Buildings and other structures were extensively damaged during the earthquake, but roadways and railways also experienced disturbances. Many case histories pertaining to liquefaction in sandy soil exist, but few exist with respect to gravel and gravelly sands. In certain situations, gravelly sands may liquefy in a similar fashion as saturated sands. The first well-documented case of liquefaction in gravelly sands was in regard to the 1983 Borah Peak earthquake in the United States. Several investigations of that event took place in the 1980s and early 1990s and the primary conclusions were that a critical condition for liquefaction to occur in that type of soil was the presence of a low permeable crust that did not allow pore water pressures to subside and that the assessment method and associated standard penetration test values used with sandy soils also applied to gravelly soils.Yegian Ghahraman Harutiunyan 1994 581, 582 Three locations between Spitak and Nalband (to the west) that were within several kilometers of the fault were examined for ground disturbances and each site was scrutinized for the effects of liquefaction. The first site was on the highway that linked the three most damaged cities and was adjacent to a tributary of the Pambak river where the water table was close to the surface. The highway's embankment failed, and though the site was repaired immediately, the resulting damage to the highway caused considerable delay in getting people and supplies into and out of the area following the disaster. Numerous sand boils were seen in the region northwest of Spitak including within 15 m on of the failed embankment. A second site that was close to the fault, also near the Pambak river and with similar soil deposits, did not experience liquefaction, though it would have experienced the same high peak ground accelerations as the failed highway embankment.Yegian Ghahraman Harutiunyan 1994 583–591 Search and rescue thumb|240px|The Holy Saviour's Church in Gyumri after the earthquake The total number of volunteer rescuers in Leninakan totalled 2,000, with personnel from Austria, Canada, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.As Hope Dies, Quake Rescuers Pull Out https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/16/world/as-hope-dies-quake-rescuers-pull-out.html?pagewanted=all Bill Keller Bill Keller December 16, 1988 The New York Times August 10, 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20180727120930/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/16/world/as-hope-dies-quake-rescuers-pull-out.html?pagewanted=all 2018-07-27Mikroregion Kahan – Razič, střelmistr a špičkový báňský záchranář "Čimča" pomáhal i obětem obřího zemětřesení. Pak se z horníka stal hospodský https://www.mikroregionkahan.cz/aktuality-a-akce/10-sfarej/260-razic-strelmistr-a-spickovy-bansky-zachranar-cimca-pomahal-i-obetem-obriho-zemetreseni-pak-se-z-hornika-stal-hospodsky December 7, 2023 mikroregionkahan.czDecember 8, 1988 USSR Earthquake Dec 1988 UNDRO Situation Reports 1–14 – Armenia ReliefWeb https://reliefweb.int/report/armenia/ussr-earthquake-dec-1988-undro-situation-reports-1-14 December 7, 2023 ReliefWeb About 8 days after the earthquake, foreign rescuers were asked to depart so that Soviet demolition teams could begin destroying irreparable structures. Nikolai Ryzhkov, the then Chairman of the Council of Ministers, was awarded the National Hero of Armenia for his work in rebuilding the city following the earthquake.Russia 'Concerned' About Armenian Protests of Foreign-Language Schools https://www.rferl.org/a/Russia_Concerned_About_Armenian_Protests_Of_Foreign_Language_Schools/2218106.html November 12, 2010 RFE/RL Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty August 18, 2012 Seventy-eight people were killed while on a relief mission to Leninakan when a Soviet Ilyushin Il-76 crashed on approach to the airport there. Nine crew and 69 military personnel were on board the plane that struck a helicopter in foggy conditions at the small airport that was overrun with rescue flights. In the days following the earthquake, the normally quiet airstrip was receiving up to 180 flights per day carrying food, medical supplies, and disaster management experts. Those who were killed on the plane were planning to join an estimated 20,000 soldiers and 85,000 civil defense workers in rescue efforts by searching for survivors, supplying food and water, and setting up sanitation facilities in the region. At the Yerevan airport, western pilots reported a breakdown in air traffic control communications, with flight controllers not delivering the necessary flight navigation instructions, allowing for a critical lack of separation as foreign planes made their way into the area.Soviet Relief Plane Crashes, Killing 78 https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/12/world/soviet-relief-plane-crashes-killing-78.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm Philip Taubman December 12, 1988 The New York Times August 10, 2012 A second air transport incident occurred the following day at Yerevan (capital of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic) when an Antonov An-12 from Yugoslavia crashed, killing all seven crew on board. The crash was blamed on the pilots' failure to properly adjust the altimeter following a miscommunication with the air traffic controllers.Yugoslav Pilots Blamed in Crash of Quake Relief Plane https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-12-24-mn-522-story.html December 24, 1988 Associated Press August 9, 2012 Los Angeles Times A group of French recording artists and actors came together with the French writer and composer Charles Aznavour to record the 1989 song "Pour toi Arménie" (For you Armenia). Aznavour, together with Armenian-French composer Georges Garvarentz, formed a foundation called "Aznavour for Armenia" and composed the song as a call for help for the Armenians. It took six weeks from the creation of the song to completion of the disc and with almost two million copies sold, the foundation was able to build 47 schools and three orphanages for the victims of the disaster.Story of Charles Aznavour's "For you Armenia" http://www.armenews.com/article.php3?id_article=74992 Jean Eckian January 12, 2012 Armenie Magazine August 18, 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20130213112714/http://www.armenews.com/article.php3?id_article=74992 February 13, 2013 dead Rock Aid Armenia, also known in earlier stages as Live Aid Armenia, was a humanitarian effort by the British music industry to raise money to help those affected by the earthquake. A monument, Armenian Earthquake, expressing the appreciation of the Armenian people for assistance from the U.S. was erected in Washington, D.C. in 1990. The pianist Evgeny Kissin wrote a letter in Golos Armenii stating that following the earthquake, instead of sending humanitarian aid, Azerbaijan sent crutches and coffin nails.Anzhela Elibegova https://books.google.com/books?id=cmQ1EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA Armenophobia in Azerbaijan Adibekian Armine Aegitas 2021 978-0-369-40559-3 29–30LLC Helix Consulting "КЛИШЕ АНТИАРМЯНСКОЙ ПРОПАГАНДЫ ИДЕНТИЧНЫ АНТИЕВРЕЙСКИМ..." Голос Армении - Общественно-политическая газета - 20404 (51) http://golosarmenii.am/ru/20404/world/26789/ https://web.archive.org/web/20130607052214/htp://golosarmenii.am/ru/20404/world/26789/ 2013-06-07 2025-10-15 golosarmenii.am enՊանորամա Հայաստանի նորություններ https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2013/05/16/golos1/518399 2025-10-15 www.panorama.amOpen letter: "Jewish Voice from Germany" Evgeny Kissin https://www.kissin.org/openletter 2025-10-15 evgenykissin en International humanitarian efforts thumb|upright=0.75|A French search and rescue worker searches for buried people with the aid of a detection dog Fund for Armenian Relief Gorbachev set aside 5 billion rubles (about US$8 billion) in funds for a start on what would likely be a recovery cost that would exceed the cleanup bill for the 1986 nuclear and radiation accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine. While foreign doctors did assist with the Chernobyl incident, the Soviet relief effort after the earthquake was augmented by the largest foreign cooperation since World War II. That deluge of western aid was a byproduct of the disaster that may have had a positive effect on Soviet Union–United States relations. The cost of rebuilding would be a severe obstacle for Perestroika, Gorbachev's plan for economic restructuring. Another adverse effect of the disaster was that the Armenians were already distrustful of Gorbachev's dismissal of their claims to the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which the Armenians had been contesting with neighboring Azerbaijan. The tensions between the two countries prior to when the earthquake struck heightened amid reports of festivities being held and celebratory messages arriving from Azerbaijan.California Institute of International Studies, "Soviet Union", World Affairs Report 19 (1988): p. 126. The world responded rapidly to the disaster in Leninakan and Spitak, with much of Europe sending cargo aircraft loaded with medical supplies, rescue equipment, and trained personnel to assist in the recovery, and even more reinforcement coming in from Latin America and the Far East. Mikhail Gorbachev was in New York attending the Governors Island Summit on his first day of visits with Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush at the time of the earthquake, and once the scale of the disaster was realized, a quick departure was made back to Armenia, with the Kremlin formally asking for American help. Washington immediately responded with offers of doctors, medical equipment, and rescue teams, and by the first weekend the first US plane arrived in Yerevan with search and rescue teams and detection dogs.Brand David Ann Blackman http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,956559,00.html https://web.archive.org/web/20080220004545/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,956559,00.html dead February 20, 2008 Soviet Union: When the Earth Shook – A killer quake devastates Armenia, and the West responds with unprecedented aid Time December 19, 1988 August 10, 2012 Bush's son and twelve-year-old grandson, Jeb Bush and George P. Bush, flew out later that month to Armenia to help in the distribution of American aid. They toured a hospital and prayed in a chapel. "Both my boys cried, overcome by what they had seen," President Bush later recounted. Both Gorbachev and Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze told him that the gesture "sent a strong signal across the entire Soviet Union that America genuinely cared about their suffering."George H. W. Bush and Brent Scowcroft, A World Transformed (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), p. 8. The French arrived in Armenia in the late evening on Friday, 9 December, and relieved the exhausted Armenian workers who then returned to Yerevan.Verluise 1995 19, 24 Japan sent a monetary gift of $9 million while Italy had plans to build a prefabricated village for the victims, and West Germany offered to send more than a dozen heavy cranes. The Americans donated generously as well, with Washington dispatching eight official planeloads of official relief aid plus a Lockheed C-141 Starlifter from Italy. Private donations from the United States were also significant. Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca arranged for a fund drive, and in Chicago (one of five major Armenian population centers in the US) the community raised $800,000 and donated 20000 lb flip 1 of supplies. thumb|Mikhail Gorbachev with Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush in New York on the day of the earthquake due to the Governors Island Summit American businessman and philanthropist Armand Hammer, well known to the Soviet Union for his financial pursuits and humanitarian ties, left Los Angeles for Armenia on board a Boeing 727 loaded with 2300 lb flip on of medical supplies that were provided by the American Red Cross. Hammer, known for his decades of work with the Occidental Petroleum Corporation, had spoken with Gorbachev prior to leaving and was carrying with him $1 million in relief funds. Half of those funds were from World Vision International, a California-based relief and development umbrella organization and the other half were his own personal donation. The flight also carried Robert Seiple (president of World Vision) and a UCLA doctor who had worked in the aftermath of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake.Hammer Flies Supplies to Quake Area https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-12-11-mn-440-story.html Eric Malnic December 11, 1988 Los Angeles Times August 19, 2012 Red tape inevitably held up some of the rescue efforts and criticism of the perceived flawed processes soon followed. The newspaper Pravda complained that the lack of cranes meant that "seconds and hours are being lost—that means lives." The paper also stated that too many Soviet personnel were giving advice and not enough people were actually searching. The daily newspaper Sotsialisticheskaya Industriya noted that there were families living out in the open even while there was an abundance of tents available. Health minister Yevgeniy Chazov urged the creation of a governmental body to assist with disaster management. Baxter International, an American health care company with headquarters in Deerfield, Illinois, designed and built a flying medical lab set up with 20 dialysis machines to be used with victims suffering from crush syndrome (trauma associated with building collapses), but were unable to get started for four days until the visas were available. With the hospitals destroyed and their limited knowledge of the care requirements, the Soviets were not well-equipped to deal with the cases of crush syndrome. Author and professor of geopolitics Pierre Verluise detailed in his 1995 book Armenia in Crisis: The 1988 Earthquake, how a French doctor and director of a Leninakan hospital described that he had seen one hundred victims suffering from the syndrome each day during the first three days. In order to prevent kidney failure or death, the treatment requires prompt hospitalization, and, according to the doctor, the victims were not receiving adequate medication and dialysis and, as a result, most died before the arrival of the first foreign dialysis machines.Verluise 1995 31 Rebuilding Urban planning in communist countries In February 1989 one hundred construction workers, including Batmunkh Luvsandash, were assembling temporary housing for themselves in Leninakan with a plan to start on the local population's housing by the end of the month, though schools and factories were also on the list of facilities to be rebuilt. Deputy chairman of a city building and architecture council said that updated building codes like those in the United States were being drafted (along with a strict requirement that the new protocols be respected) and that the new buildings would be no taller than four stories and would be located away from areas with the highest seismic risk. Other officials decided that the town would be relocated several kilometers to the southwest.Life amid the ruins: Armenians rebuild http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-3928533.html# https://web.archive.org/web/20160415194918/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-3928533.html usurped April 15, 2016 Andrew Katell February 12, 1989 Chicago Sun-Times HighBeam Research subscription September 9, 2012 As of July 1989, about $500 million in donations had been delivered to the Armenians from 113 countries. Most of those funds went into the initial relief work and medical care plus the beginning portion of the rebuilding phase. Yuri S. Mkhitarian, an Armenian State Building Committee official, gave an updated damage report that included some of the outlying communities away from the population centers stating that 342 villages were damaged and another 58 were destroyed. The negative effect the earthquake had on the economy of Armenia was apparent. Mkhitarian said that 130 factories were destroyed and 170,000 people were out of work. Officials acknowledged that the work to complete the rebuilding may take up to five years or longer, a supposition that more than doubled Gorbachev's estimate of two years. At that time 20 projects had completed the planning process and some had been approved and construction started. In Leninakan, there was a need for 18 new hospitals, 12 of which could be funded with the assistance of the republics of the Soviet Union, but foreign help would be required to build six additional facilities. Boris Karapetyan, director of earthquake studies at the Yerevan Polytechnical Institute, said of the difficult rebuilding process "Coordination is a major, major problem. This is a massive undertaking, and foreign involvement is both a necessary and a complicating factor. We need foreign assistance—and there is no doubt about that—but our friends do not know the local conditions and propose things that cannot or should not be built in an earthquake-prone region."Faucets, Not Hospitals : Armenia Aid Gets Back to the Basics https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-07-23-mn-401-story.html Michael Parks July 23, 1989 Los Angeles Times September 9, 2012 The Soviets and an American group of architects each devised separate outlines for rebuilding the town of Spitak. Following an invitation by the Soviets for a critique of their plan, the American proposal was ultimately accepted as the way forward. The new plan would deviate from Soviet styles that were found to be rigid and outdated and would mirror characteristics of the local culture. For many years following World War II the Soviets practiced a methodical top-down approach to urban planning and building, constructing a large number of uniformly built row style apartment units, and the Soviets plan for rebuilding Spitak did not diverge from that approach. The Soviet's grid plan road scheme was found to not take into account the hillside at the new city's location, and the American plan included finer details of how commercial centers and government facilities were grouped together in an open and communal style.In Armenia, Revival the American Way; U.S. Architects Plan an Earthquake-Resistant Spitak http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1199064.html https://web.archive.org/web/20160304093349/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1199064.html usurped March 4, 2016 Benjamin Forgey July 1, 1989 The Washington Post HighBeam Research subscription September 16, 2012Out of Earthquake's Rubble Rises Soviet-U.S. Teamwork https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-04-21-vw-2353-story.html April 21, 1989 Leon Whiteson Los Angeles Times September 23, 2012 Other events 1991 Racha earthquake The Tsaghkadzor earthquake on 20 October 1827, was centred about 50 km on southeast of Spitak and had a maximum intensity of VIII on the Medvedev–Sponheuer–Karnik scale. While that shock may have been related to the Pambak-Sevan fault, the 1926 Leninakan earthquake to the west of the 1988 event also had a maximum intensity of MSK VIII. See also Earthquake (2016 film) FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force Geography of Armenia List of earthquakes in 1988 List of earthquakes in Armenia Lord Byron School (Gyumri) Ministry of Emergency Situations (Russia) Out of the Ruins Urban Search and Rescue Virginia Task Force 1 References Significant Earthquake Information https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazel/view/hazards/earthquake/event-more-info/5184 National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service (NGDC/WDS): NCEI/WDS Global Significant Earthquake Database. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. 1972 NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information 10.7289/V5TD9V7K March 19, 2024 A History of Modern Russia: From Nicholas II to Vladimir Putin Service Robert Robert Service (historian) 2003 Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts 978-0-674-01801-3 468–469 https://archive.org/details/historyofmodernr00robe/page/468 David Brand Ann Blackman Paul Hofheinz B. William Mader http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/printout/0,8816,956602,00.html https://archive.today/20130204204409/http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/printout/0,8816,956602,00.html dead February 4, 2013 Soviet Union Vision of Horror Time December 26, 1988 August 10, 2012 Wood Berrill Gillon North 1993 253 Deaths and Injuries due to the Earthquake in Armenia – A Cohort Approach Haroutune K. Armenian Arthur Melkonian Eric K. Noji Ashot P. Hovanesian 1997 International Journal of Epidemiology 26 4 806–813 10.1093/ije/26.4.806 9279613 Sources The Spitak (Armenia) earthquake of 7 December 1988: field observations, seismology and tectonics http://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/pleins_textes_5/b_fdi_20-21/27185.pdf A. Cisternas H. Philip J. C. Bousquet M. Cara A. Deschamps L. Dorbath C. Dorbath H. Haessler E. Jimenez A. Nercessian L. Rivera B. Romanowicz A. Gvishiani N. V. Shebalin I. Aptekman S. Arefiev B. A. Borisov A. Gorshkov V. Graizer A. Lander K. Pletnev A. I. Rogozhin R. Tatevossian 1989 Nature 339 6227 675–679 10.1038/339675a0 1989Natur.339..675C 4321102 Geometry, segmentation and stress regime of the Spitak (Armenia) earthquake from the analysis of the aftershock sequence January 1992 L. Dorbath C. Dorbath L. Rivera A. Fuenzalida A. Cisternas R. Tatevossian J. Aptekman S. Arefiev Geophysical Journal International 108 1 309–328 10.1111/j.1365-246x.1992.tb00860.x 1992GeoJI.108..309D free Armenia in Crisis: The 1988 Earthquake https://books.google.com/books?id=Y4kQUU_bpOsC Verluise Pierre April 1995 Wayne State University Press 978-0-8143-2527-8 Earthquake of 7 December 1988, Spitak, Armenia report of the NZNSEE team visit of 1989 http://www.nzsee.org.nz/db/Bulletin/Archive/26%283%290253.pdf P.R. Wood J.B. Berrill N.R. Gillon P.J. North September 1993 Bulletin of the New Zealand National Society for Earthquake Engineering 26 3 253–283 10.5459/bnzsee.26.3.253-283 1993BNZSE..26..253W Liquefaction and Embankment Failure Case Histories, 1988 Armenia Earthquake Yegian M. Ghahraman V. Harutiunyan R March 1994 Journal of Geotechnical Engineering 120 3 581–596 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9410(1994)120:3(581) 1994GtEng.120..581Y Further reading Abrams J. I. 1989 Detection and extrication in the Armenian earthquake International workshop on earthquake injury epidemiology for mitigation and response 435–449 Baltimore, MD Allan R. 1989 The Armenian earthquake – The UK response Disaster Management 1 4 10–17 Azarian A. G. Skriptchenko-Gregorian V. G. Miller T. W. amp Kraus R. F. 1994 Childhood trauma in victims of the Armenian earthquake Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy 24 2 77–85 10.1007/BF02310246 28309171 Doose Katja Tektonik der Perestroika: Das Erdbeben und die Neuordnung Armeniens, 1985-1998 Vienna Böhlau 2019 Giel R. 1991 The psychosocial aftermath of two major disasters in the Soviet Union Journal of Traumatic Stress 4 3 381–392 10.1002/jts.2490040306 143536081 Goenjian A. 1993 A mental health relief programme in Armenia after the 1988 earthquake. Implementation and clinical observations British Journal of Psychiatry 163 2 230–239 10.1192/bjp.163.2.230 8075916 22113623 Grigorova L. F. Gasparian A. A. amp Manukian L. H. 1990 Armenia, December, 88, Yerevan Armenia Hayastan ru Najarian L. M. Goenjian A. K. Pelcovitz D. 1996 Relocation after a disaster: Posttraumatic stress disorder in Armenia after the earthquake Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 35 3 374–383 10.1097/00004583-199603000-00020 8714327 etal free Pesola G. Bayshtok V. amp Kvetan V. 1989 American critical care team at foreign disaster: The Armenian experience Critical Care Medicine 17 6 582–585 10.1097/00003246-198906000-00021 2524364 26419964 Philip H. Rogozhin E. Cisternas A. Bousquet J. C. Borisov B. Karakhanian A. The Armenian earthquake of 1988 December 7: faulting and folding, neotectonics and palaeoseismicity Geophysical Journal International 110 1 1992 0956-540X 10.1111/j.1365-246x.1992.tb00718.x 141–158 1992GeoJI.110..141P free Pynoos R. S. Goenjian A. Tashjian M. 1993 Post-traumatic stress reactions in children after the 1988 Armenian earthquake British Journal of Psychiatry 163 2 239–247 10.1192/bjp.163.2.239 8075917 25581406 etal External links M 6.8 – Armenia from the United States Geological Survey Earthquake Damage, the Armenian SSR, December 7, 1988 – National Geophysical Data Center On this day – 1988: Death toll rises in Armenian earthquake – BBC News Rescue efforts underway after earthquake strikes the Soviet republic of Armenia – ABC News Armenian Earthquake Memorial at the Red Cross Bldg in Washington, D.C. Out of the Ruins Documentary Film on the Armenian Earthquakehttps://web.archive.org/web/20160618225607/http://www.dcmemorials.com/index_indiv0000880.htm June 18, 2016 – dcmemorials.com Spitak 1988 Earthquake https://web.archive.org/web/20131114183526/http://www.nssp-gov.am/spitak_eng.htm November 14, 2013 – Armenian National Survey for Seismic Protection In pictures: 25th anniversary of Armenian earthquake – BBC News 417441 Commemorative coin from the Soviet Union – 3 Roubles 1989 Armenian Earthquake, 1988 Earthquake, 1988 Category:1988 disasters in the Soviet Union Category:Earthquakes in Armenia Category:Earthquakes in the Soviet Union Category:Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic Category:Pierre Schaeffer Category:December 1988 in Asia Category:1988 disasters in Armenia