earthquake in armenia 1988

Click here for all copyright requests. 140,000 people were injured and 500,000 more were left homeless. 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. 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. Hurricane Harvey's most destructive force. The devastating earthquake, measuring 10 degrees on the MSK scale, took place in 40% of the territory of Armenia at 11:41 (local time), December 7, 1988. However, as of 2020, thousands of people in the region still live in the temporary shelters provided in the aftermath of the earthquake. This disaster produced an unprecedented worldwide response to its traumatic consequences. economy of the region was also in shambles, Journal of Emergency and Internal Medicine, The Earthquake of Spitak, Armenia, and Its Socio-economic Implications, Nagorno-Karabakh's annexation referendum in 1988, past their expiry date and therefore unusable. On 7 December 1988 a devastating earthquake in northern Armenia killed 25,000 and left hundreds of thousands homeless in the Soviet republic. According to the Los Angeles Times, 130 factories were destroyed and at least 170,000 people were out of work. On December 6th, 1988, the northern region of Armenia was hit by a magnitude 3.0 earthquake at 3:27 in the afternoon followed by a larger aftershock that measured 5.8 almost five minutes afterward. Almost 90% of schools were also lost. After the Armenian earthquake, thousands were given temporary shelters made of concrete blocks or old railway cars. The United States and the world responded with a rush of humanitarian aid. Jump to navigation Jump to search. This is an incomplete list of earthquakes in Armenia. In some of the cities, the loss of medical staff numbered between 70% to 80%. Many consider the poor living conditions to be responsible for their health problems. Surface ruptures caused by the main shock were observed up to 13 kilometers from the epicenter, with vertical displacement averaging 1 meter but reaching as much as 1.6 meters in places. Coupled with non-compatible medical equipment, the relief effort mostly just exposed the poor planning and flaws when it came to international humanitarian aid. Four minutes later, a magnitude 5.9 aftershock hit. On December 7, 1988, an earthquake shattered the north of Soviet Armenia. The tremor lasted approximately I min ute, followed by an aftershock 4 minutes later of magnitude 5.8. It arrived too late for emergency medical treatment." In several cases, relief teams ended up stuck in Moscow because officials simply didn't know where to send them. Volunteers from international countries left because of a collapsed infrastructure and lack of construction materials. On December 11th, Gorbachev visited Leninakan to witness the damage and talk to survivors. “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. At 11:41 a.m., the earthquake damaged nearly a third of the small country and destroyed the town of Spitak near the epicenter. By Jolyon Naegele Prague, 17 March 1998 (RFE/RL) -- Nearly ten years ago, on December 7, 1988, a massive earthquake rocked northwestern Armenia, killing some 50,000 inhabitants. When someone is trapped under tremendous weight from an earthquake or building collapse for upwards of four hours, they become susceptible to crush syndrome. © 2008-2020. Any copying, redistribution or retransmission of any of the contents of this service without the expressed written permission of the American Geosciences Institute is expressly prohibited. However, during this period, the skies were dangerously crowded with planes coming in to supply aid. Today marks 32nd anniversary since 1988 earthquake in Armenia. When muscles get crushed, their cells start to leak and die, and their contents, including potassium and myoglobin, start to build up. In one small town, just after the earthquake, a father rushed to his son's school only to find that the school had been flattened. At least 259 aftershocks were recorded from December 22nd to January 1st, 1989. With the winter temperatures and domik windows made of cheap plastic instead of glass, sometimes people freeze to death during the night. In the town of Spitak, out of 36 hospitals, 24 were completely destroyed and 8 were partially destroyed. The economy of the region was also in shambles after the earthquake. On December 7, 1988, an earthquake with a magnitude of6.9 on the Richter Scale struck Armenia (population 3.5 million). The world united with an outpouring of assistance for relief efforts, which was desperately needed. 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. American Red Cross President Dick Schubert surveys the damage in Armenia following the earthquake in December. In one elementary school alone, 400 children were killed. It was followed four minutes later by a magnitude-5.9 aftershock; together these quakes caused extensive damage across a 400-square-kilometer area. On the morning of December 7th, it became clear that the previous quakes were merely foreshocks to the main quake, which hit at 11:41 AM local time, measuring a magnitude of 6.8-7.0. “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 school’s magazine in 2015. Then-Armenian Assembly Board Chairman Hirair Hovnanian leading a delegation bringing humanitarian relief to Armenia after the 1988 earthquake WASHINGTON, D.C. – On the 30th Anniversary of the Spitak Earthquake, the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) remembers the thousands of lives lost and villages destroyed after a massive earthquake, registering 6.9 on the Richter Scale, struck… A woman looks at her destroyed house, on December 11, 1988, in the devastated town of Spitak, after an earthquake hit Armenia, on December 7, 1988. 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. PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia is commemorating the 32nd anniversary of the devastating earthquake that hit the northwestern regions of the country on December 7, 1988… Upwards of 10,000 people were reported to have been killed, mostly by the resulting landslides. The Armenian National Survey for Seismic Protection was founded in 1991, in addition to the Emergency Management Administration. Red Cross flights brought materials from Eastern and Western Europe, and Britain sent firemen and rescue experts as well as two planes with more than 50 tons of food and medical supplies. The town of Spitak was demolished; the nearby towns of Kirovakan and Leninakan also experienced heavy destruction, while rumbles were felt in Azerbaijan and Georgia. She is a graduate of the science communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and holds a master’s degree in marine biology from Florida Atlantic University. Post-earthquake studies have revealed that roughly once every 50 years, Armenia can expect an earthquake exceeding VII on the Medvedev-Sponheuer-Karnik (MSK) scale, which evaluates the severity of ground shaking, somewhat similar to the Modified Mercalli scale, and suggested that building code standards should be improved. As a result, the region has been plagued by sever earthquakes for thousands of years: an earthquake in 893 A.D. took an estimated 20,000 lives; another in 1667 took 80,000 lives. What follows is a passage from his memoirs pertaining to that day. Gorbachev was asleep in a New York hotel when the quake hit. According to EVN Report, some of the delay was caused by "local bureaucracy wait[ing] for orders from the top." The 1988 Armenian earthquake, also known as the Spitak earthquake (Սպիտակի երկրաշարժ, Spitaki yerkrasharj), occurred on December 7 at 11:41 local time with a surface wave magnitude of 6.8 and a maximum MSK intensity of X (Devastating). In many places, there weren't enough cranes with which to clear the rubble, leaving people to "work with bare hands.". Dec. 8, 1988: Earthquake in Armenia. According to Radio Free Europe, a story published in January 1989 about six men being found 35 days after the earthquake, surviving on canned pickles and fruits, ended up being too good to be true. The rupture occurred between 5 and 7 kilometers deep within the Pambak-Sevan thrust and fold zone at the base of the Lesser Caucasus Mountains. Spitak was almost completely demolished and the towns of Leninakan (Gyumri), Stepanavan, and Kirovakan (Vanadzor) were all greatly affected. Since most of the buildings had high seismic vulnerability, the newspaper Pravda attributed the scale of the destruction to the poor quality standards of buildings made during Brezhnev's term, according to EVN Report. “In the Armenian Republic, thousands of people have died,” Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze said at a news conference on Dec. 8, 1988. Over 80% of the five-story buildings and over 85% of the nine-story buildings collapsed as a result. But Armenia is not historically devoid of seismic activity and has seen numerous devastating earthquakes. According to Reuters, in 2008, the President Serzh Sarksyan pledged that rehousing and rebuilding the region would be complete by 2012, but the government keeps claiming delays due to "technical difficulties." According to EVN Report, in Leninakan, 18,000 people were found in the ruins, "out of which 8,000 survived." In 1989 an 8.2 earthquake almost flattened Armenia, killing over 30,000 people in less than four minutes. With its epicenter located in the town of Spitak, the northwestern region of Armenia shook for approximately 30 seconds. Located on the lawn outside the 17 th street Red Cross building in Washington D.C., is a 30-foot-tall bronze statue of a mother protectively embracing her child. In Armenia, the Arabian plate abuts against the Eurasian (Europe-Asia) plate. Armenian and international foundations have been primarily responsible for building over 20,000 apartments since 1988. The city of Dvin was completely destroyed by an earthquake in 893 A.D., with casualties ranging from 30,000 to 70,000. After the weight has been lifted and blood flow is restored, these cell contents start to flow through the body and can lead to cardiac and renal failure. There was no sign of life. Following an appeal for assistance from … Thirty-two years ago, on December 7, 1988, one of the most terrible tragedies in the modern history of Armenia took place. Military troops were also dispatched by the Soviets, but since their training was in post-nuclear blast recovery efforts rather than earthquake relief, they were of little practical assistance. Gorbachev was asleep in a New York hotel when the quake hit. Humanitarian organizations like the American and British Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières also invested their efforts, but according to Voluntary Action History Society, after an "initial media frenzy and relief operation," news about the earthquake's aftermath was soon absent from the headlines. Rescue teams and medical supplies were immediately dispatched to Armenia from the United States, France, India, and Cuba. Between 25,000 and 100,000 people are estimated to have died, upwards of 130,000 were injured, and half a million people were rendered homeless. December 1988. After the Soviet Union fell, Azerbaijan put a fuel embargo on Armenia in response to the war over Nagorno-Karabakh, blocking a natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan. What really happened with that huge earthquake in Armenia? Much of the medications that were sent to Armenia were also "past their expiry date and therefore unusable.". Coordinates. By the time the Soviet Union collapsed, less than 20% of the lost housing had been rebuilt. Along with the collapse of the Trans-Caucasus electrical grid, Armenia was left with little-to-no heat and electricity for 1-2 hours a day, plunging Armenia into the "dark and cold years. 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. A total of 189 such individuals were identified through neighbourhood polyclinics in the city of Leninakan and 159 noninjured controls were selected from the same neighbourhoods. And according to "The Earthquake of Spitak, Armenia, and Its Socio-economic Implications," by the next year, with the fall of the Soviet Union, the goal of reconstruction by 1998 was once again postponed since the newly independent Armenia realized that it simply couldn't keep the reconstruction program on track. Aftershocks continued in the area for months, some as large as magnitude 5.0. Ultimately, the 1988 Spitak earthquake demonstrated the inadequacies of the entire international humanitarian system. Despite the international relief efforts, the earthquake zone is still considered a disaster zone, and rebuilding has been slow, with recovery hampered by the collapse of the Soviet Union and subsequent war with Azerbaijan. According to EVN Report, the plane was carrying soldiers and relief supplies, and the cause of the crash wasn't released. But the region had no historic record of seismic events above magnitude 5.7 and thus it had received little attention in seismic hazard studies. Since electricity and lights were unavailable during the first night, rescue efforts had to be put on hold during the evening and night until there was light. Hospitals and schools collapsed, and electrical and water supplies were cut off. Several planes would be circling simultaneously, waiting for permission to land. List of earthquakes in Armenia. The U.S. — and the world — responded. 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