The impact of the 1988 Spitak Earthquake. 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. Six digital recorders built by the Institut de Physique du Globe de Strasbourg were also used to record signals from three-component seismometers. Siranush Ghazanchyan December 7, 2021, 11:34. All the hospitals around Spitak were destroyed, and 80 percent of medical personnel were killed. 7.8 magnitude earthquake. Armenia is a small country about the size of Maryland that borders Turkey to the west, Iran to the south, Azerbaijan to the east and Georgia to the north. 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. The database contains practically all material relevant to the 1988 Spitak earthquake and its aftereffects. The quake, known as the Spitak earthquake, killed between 25,000 and 60,000 . Mkhitarian said that 130 factories were destroyed and 170,000 people were out of work. major energy blockade imposed by Azerbaijan, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Ministry of Emergency Situations (Russia), Urban Search and Rescue Virginia Task Force 1, "Still Recovering: A visit to the 1988 "center of the epicenter", "Soviet aides say deaths in quake may reach 50,000", " ? 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. Several planes would be circling simultaneously, waiting for permission to land. The destruction happened so fast that people thought the city had been bombed. 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. Even Pope John Paul II donated $100,000. The economy of the region was also in shambles after the earthquake. 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. 1939-12-26 23:57:23 UTC at 23:57 December 26, 1939 UTC Location: Epicenter at 39.771, . According to The New York Times, most of the medical assistance that was sent for the earthquake, unfortunately, ended up being "of little value. 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). So many towns and villages were affected or destroyed. Rumbles from the quake were felt as far as Georgia and Azerbaijan. The damage extended across an area of over 50 miles in diameter, per BBC. 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. Image credit: World Bank. Vahagn and his friends arrived in Gyumri to find the city in ruins. Often, it took up to five hours to travel 46 miles in order to reach hospitals in Yerevan. At least 259 aftershocks were recorded from December 22nd to January 1st, 1989. Over a quarter of a century later the traces of the earthquake in Spitak are still visible. Roughly two-thirds of those who perished as a result of the earthquake were under the age of 18since the quake struck during the day while most children were at school. Most bridges and tunnels and other public infrastructure withstood the earthquake but hospitals did not fare well. Despite the fact that all necessary measures are being taken Mikhail Gorbachev believes that when a people is suffering, he has to be there and he himself has to lead the efforts. The quake came on the heels of Gorbachevs historic speech at the United Nations in which he called for an end to the Cold War and said that Soviet Troops would withdraw from Eastern Europe. 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. On the 30th anniversary of the Spitak earthquake, survivors are marking not only an Armenian tragedy, but a pivotal event in Eurasian history. Despite Cold War tensions, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who was in the U.S. on the day of the quake visiting the United Nations and meeting with President Ronald Reagan, asked for humanitarian aid from the United States within days of the event. The delegation traveled to Armenia to commemorate the 30 th anniversary of the devastating Spitak earthquake and to pay their respects to the Armenian people. 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. President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev was in New York City when he received a telegram from British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher describing what had happened and offering sympathy and aid. 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)[13] in the mountains of the Karabakh region. The work of the Armenian nuclear power plant was stopped . "Boy in the Window" - a young boy outside a damaged home near Spitak, Armenia. - list, stats and map. 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 9,000 kilograms (20,000lb) of supplies. Rescue work is currently still concentrating on finding any survivors, but hope is waning in Armenia which borders Turkey and Azerbaijan. 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. Click here for all copyright requests. According to "The Earthquake of Spitak, Armenia, and Its Socio-economic Implications" by Johanna Schott and Talin Kalatas, the insufficient design of the buildings meant that almost all medical care stations and hospitals suffered severe damage. [39], As of July 1989, about $500 million in donations had been delivered to the Armenians from 113 countries. WASHINGTON On December 7, 1988, after learning about the earthquake in Armenia, then leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev interrupted his visit to the United States to fly back to the USSR. I still can hear the sound that the ground made at that time. Anahit Harutyunyan. According to official government reports, the number of deaths due to the earthquake was approximately 25,000. prohibited. 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 1,500km2. 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. Research groups from the former U.S.S.R., U.S.A., France, and Japan studied the earthquake area. Mikhail Gorbachev was in New York 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. 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 14km (8.7mi) deep. Once there, Gor rushes through what's left from the town in search of his small house. 1. The 1988 earthquake in Armenia was the most serious seismic disaster since the 1976 earthquake in Tangshan, China. On Dec. 10, three days after the quake, three cargo planes carrying U.S. medical supplies and rescue teams, including dogs trained to sniff out survivors buried in the rubble, left Washington, D.C., and a military base in Italy, headed for the Armenian capital of Yerevan, about 100 kilometers from Spitak. At that time 20 projects had completed the planning process and some had been approved and construction started. The database was developed as a cooperative effort between centers in Russia and the United States. [16], Waveform modeling established that the faulting originated at a depth of 5km (3.1mi) with the epicenter on the Alavar thrust fault on the slopes of the Lesser Caucasus mountains north of Mount Aragats. Interestingly, the number of deaths caused by the Spitak earthquake is also still not completely clear. Then she says that the state of Azerbaijan became one of the first to send humanitarian aid even though ethnic . read more, Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Keywords, ["Distribution liability: NOAA and NCEI make no warranty, expressed or implied, regarding these data, nor does the fact of distribution constitute such a warranty. According to Associated Press, the plane was carrying medical supplies and tragically all seven crew members died in the crash. Many of these psychological effects that were initially identified continued to persist in this population some 23 years later, affecting not only their mental health and quality of life, but in many cases their physical health as well, said Haroutune K. Armenian, an epidemiologist at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, in an article in the schools magazine in 2015. The complex incident ruptured multiple faults, with a strike-slip event occurring shortly after the initiation of the mainshock. Crush syndrome, which occurs when damaged tissues release toxins and alter blood chemistry leading to renal failure, is a common cause of death in large earthquakes. The next day, on December 12th, a Yugoslav military plane crashed during its attempt to land, roughly 10 miles from the Yerevan airport. However, according to Earth Magazine, these quakes didn't receive much attention because few thought that there was a serious seismic risk in the region. Borjomi , Samtskhe-Javakheti , Georgia. By the end of 1988, there were practically no Muslims (Turks or Kurds) left in Armenia. Credit: LoMit, CC BY-SA 4.0. The towns near the epicenter of the earthquake experienced widespread building collapse, revealing a need for stronger building codes in the region. Today's Earthquakes Today's Earthquakes; Big Quakes; Places LA and Southern California; . Innumerable apartment buildings and industrial facilities collapsed or faced heavy damage. In 1988, a 6.9 earthquake, also known as the Spitak earthquake, hit a densely populated region in Armenia. Coupled with non-compatible medical equipment, the relief effort mostly just exposed the poor planning and flaws when it came to international humanitarian aid. Seismic analysis revealed a complex seismic waveform pattern significantly more complex than those normally seen for an event of this size, according to a 1993 study in Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. The information provided on this page seeks to define how the GCMD Keywords From daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings and climate monitoring to fisheries management, coastal restoration and supporting marine commerce, NOAAs products and 1988 Spitak Earthquake Database The 1988 Spitak Earthquake database is an extensive collection of geophysical and geological data, maps, charts, images and descriptive text pertaining to the catastrophic earthquake in Armenia. With most of Armenia covered in high-rise buildings the consequences have been devastating. However, by other estimates the death toll was around 35,000. 1979 Morbi Damburst vs. 1988 Armenian earthquake. In addition to government aid, American Armand Hammer, a philanthropist who headed Occidental Petroleum Corp., flew to Armenia on Dec. 10 with a planeload of medical supplies and a $1 million donation. The earthquake hit 40% of the territory of Armenia, densely populated regions with 1 million people. The 1988 earthquake ruptured along the western segment of the Pambak-Sevan thrust and fold belt in northern Armenia. There the seismic signals were digitized, along with an internal time signal and an external DCF77 time signal, and stored on magnetic tape. 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. It took an earthquake to shake me out of yesterday's bout of self-pity. [9], 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. USSR OFFICIAL SOURCES INDICATE TENTATIVE DEATH TOLL OF EARTHQUAKE (WORST IN REGION SINCE 1046, ACCORDING TO SOVIET SEISMOLOGIST) AT 40 TO 45,000 PEOPLE. And with so many of the roads destroyed and blocked by rubble, by the time relief crews finally arrived, they were "too late to save many lives," per VAHS. permission of the American Geosciences Institute is expressly 514,000 people were left homeless. 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 Ukraine. The city of Leninakan, with 290,000 inhabitants, and the towns of Stepanavan and Kirovakan, were also heavily hit. The former Soviet Union came under heavy criticism for failing to co-ordinate rescue work and acting promptly - revealing it had no contingency plans for any disasters. Predictors distinguishing chronic depression included earthquake-related nuclear-family deaths (OR=3.79), chronic illnesses at baseline (OR=1.24 . In certain situations, gravelly sands may liquefy in a similar fashion as saturated sands. Gorbachev was asleep in a New York hotel when the quake hit. 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. 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. The Times paid special attention to Jewish and Israeli aid in the summer of 1989. "The. [31], 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. However, 30 years later, thousands remain living in temporary houses or "domik" shanties created from old shipping containers. Oni , Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti , Georgia. (DSRS and CPTSD-RI) and earthquake-related sibling death. By the time the Soviet Union collapsed, less than 20% of the lost housing had been rebuilt. The seismicity along this belt is marked by frequent major earthquakes from the Aegean Sea, through Turkey and Iran, and into Afghanistan. . At the age of 91 years old, Gorbachev is the longest-lived ruler . Those of you who answered the appeal for help, who have assisted in the relief effort, and those who flew to the Soviet Union and sifted through the rubble, searching for life against all odds, carried with you a message from America. "Spitak (official trailer):" Commissioned by Aleksandr Kott in 2018 for his requiem film "Spitak;" Serj Tankian created a soundtrack with a mix of piano, strings, and the sounds of cranes and machinery used in rescue operations. Private donations from the United States were also significant. Since the Spitak earthquake, Armenia has made efforts to study and monitor the countrys seismic activity and improve emergency preparedness. Relief didnt just come from the U.S. India sent a 42-member medical team, France sent 200 rescue workers and doctors, Cuba sent blood donations and Pope John Paul II contributed $100,000. The supplies included three kidney dialysis machines to help victims crushed by collapsing buildings who experienced kidney failure. Rumbles from the quake were felt as far as Georgia and Azerbaijan. They supposedly sustained themselves on the food suppliesfruit salad, pickles, and smoked hamthat were available in the basement for 35 days before their rescue in January, but this turned out to be a hoax. Credit: National Archives. Although there were attempts to direct gas pipelines from Georgia, "seven times from late January to mid-March 1993, Azerbaijani saboteurs blew up gas pipelines in Marneuli." The intensity of the earthquake in Spitak was X 'Devastating' on the Medvedyev-Sponheuer-Karnik-64 scale, with a death toll of 17% of the population; in Gumri it was IX-X 'Destructive', with. The cities of Spitak, Leninakan (now Gyumri), Kirovakan (now Vanadzor) and Stepanavan, as well as hundreds of villages were totally or partially destroyed. 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. For some, like Ara Tadevossian and his mother, there's a belief that it might have been tragically fortunate not to be rescued in the first few days, simply because everything had been destroyed and it might not have been possible to airlift people to safety earlier. Spitak, a town of 25,000 inhabitants, has been completely destroyed and cannot be rebuilt - a new city will have to be built over the wreckage. The tapes were then played back and the P-wave and S-wave arrival times were used to automatically determine aftershock locations. After a brief photo-op with President-elect George Bush Sr. and President Ronald Reagan, Gorbachov cut his trip short and flew back to Moscow. In 1996 the seismic zoning maps were redrawn for the entire country, and in 1994, and again in 2006, the building codes were strengthened. December 7, 2021 victoriapavlov I will never forget December 7th, 1988. Overall, 342 villages and 11 cities were damaged. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was attending a U.N. meeting in New York when the earthquake struck. In 1988, the Spitak magnitude-6.9 earthquake in Armenia took more than 25,000 lives. Buildings that didn't collapse featured well-maintained masonry and skeletal components that were joined together adequately in a way that allowed for the building to resist seismic waves. And although there are over 400 homeless people on the waiting list for housing, there are over 3,000 people who aren't even on the waiting list. One of several reasons why so many buildings suffered so much damage is that the Soviet Union "had only one building code for the entire territory," regardless of whether or not the building was in a coastal or earthquake region. This earthquake was unique both in catastrophic effects and in study coverage. Twelve thousand families remain displaced as a result of the earthquake after new cities, started by Moscow in 1989, have remained half-built. [6][17], Some of the strongest shaking occurred in industrial areas with chemical and food processing plants, electrical substations, and power plants. On this day December 7 th, in 1988, an earthquake hit Spitak with a magnitude of 7.1, which destroyed the entire town, though much of this was blamed on the poor structural quality of many of the buildings. The damage to industry and infrastructure is also disappointing. The energy released in the . The paper entitled "Predictors of permanent emigration in a long-term cohort of Spitak earthquake survivors in Armenia" is the most recent publication in the series of papers on the Post-earthquake Psychopathological Investigation (PEPSI) longitudinal study, which followed a cohort of survivors of the 1988 Spitak earthquake for over two decades. 3 years ago 4.2 magnitude, 10 km depth. The first well-documented case of liquefaction in gravelly sands was in regard to the 1983 Borah Peak earthquake in the United States. After the Armenian earthquake, thousands were given temporary shelters made of concrete blocks or old railway cars. It arrived too late for emergency medical treatment." [28], 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. [27], Buildings and other structures were extensively damaged during the earthquake, but roadways and railways also experienced disturbances. The daily newspaper Sotsialisticheskaya Industriya noted that there were families living out in the open even while there was an abundance of tents available. On December 11th, Gorbachev visited Leninakan to witness the damage and talk to survivors. However, weather conditions made air evacuations of victims incredibly difficult, as did damage to railways and roads. Much of the medications that were sent to Armenia were also "past their expiry date and therefore unusable.". However, according to EVN Report, at the time Gorbachev had a turbulent relationship with the Armenian people due to the Soviet Union's refusal to honor Nagorno-Karabakh's annexation referendum in 1988. The small city of Spitak was destroyed, while the nearby . It struck three days ago at 1141 local time when children were at school and most people at work. Credit: NGDC/NOAA. The Soviet estimate of the deaths in the Armenia Earthquake exceeds 25,000, but unofficial estimates put this figure at 2 to 3 times this number, making it one of the worst natural disasters of this century. Ultimately, the 1988 Spitak earthquake demonstrated the inadequacies of the entire international humanitarian system. It measured 6.9 on the Richter scale and affected an area 80 kilometres in diameter. 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 Armnie" (For you Armenia). Throughout the 20th century, there were several earthquakes throughout Armenia, but none caused destruction comparable to the earthquake that struck Spitak in 1988. 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. Browse 194 spitak earthquake stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. Zestap'oni , Imereti , Georgia. When muscles get crushed, their cells start to leak and die, and their contents, including potassium and myoglobin, start to build up. Despite tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States as a result of the Cold War, according to The Washington Post, in response to the earthquake, the Soviet Union asked for and received aid from the United States. With average winter temperatures of 14 degrees Fahrenheit, residents in Gyumri have to use small portable stoves to keep warm. However, as of 2020, thousands of peoplein the region still live in the temporary shelters provided in the aftermath of the earthquake. 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. 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.

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