Compared to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti which created roughly $7.8 billion in damages, the 1988 Spitak earthquake created $16.2 billion in damages. The complex quake involved two or more ruptures on different fault planes. Today in Armenia, Dec. 7 is a day of remembrance: Armenian Earthquake Memorial Day. The 1988 Armenian earthquake, also known as the Spitak earthquake (Սպիտակի երկրաշարժ Spitaki yerkrašarž), 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). After the Armenian earthquake, thousands were given temporary shelters made of concrete blocks or old railway cars. In 1988 he was in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, just as the news that an earthquake had leveled Armenia’s Yerevan hit. “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 Gorbachev’s 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. “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. Environmental groups opposed reopening of the plant, since it poses an environmental threat. 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. In northern Armenia, the 600-kilometer-long Lesser Caucasus Mountains experience north-south compression as the two plates converge, giving rise to seismic active in recent times: a magnitude-5 earthquake hit Spitak in 1967, a magnitude-5.7 earthquake struck Leninakan (now Gyumri) in 1926, and a magnitude-5.3 event hit Kirovakan in 1911. On December 7, 1988, an earthquake shattered the north of Soviet Armenia. Four minutes later, a magnitude 5.9 aftershock hit. In the town of Spitak, out of 36 hospitals, 24 were completely destroyed and 8 were partially destroyed. On December 7, 1988, an earthquake devastated the northwestern section of Armenia, killing an estimated 25,000 people. The next day, on December 12th, a Yugoslav military plane crashed during its attempt to land, roughly 10 miles from the Yerevan airport. Upwards of 10,000 people were reported to have been killed, mostly by the resulting landslides. However, weather conditions made air evacuations of victims incredibly difficult, as did damage to railways and roads. 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." Overall, 342 villages and 11 cities were damaged. 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. 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. 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. 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. With the winter temperatures and domik windows made of cheap plastic instead of glass, sometimes people freeze to death during the night. According to Associated Press, the plane was carrying medical supplies and tragically all seven crew members died in the crash. 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. Coordinates. “Despite the fact that all necessary measures are being taken … Mikhail Gorbachev believes that when … There was no sign of life. 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. The effects of the earthquake were absolutely devastating. All rights reserved. Innumerable apartment buildings and industrial facilities collapsed or faced heavy damage. It left more than 25,000 people dead, over 15,000 wounded needing urgent care, and more than half a million homeless. Jump to navigation Jump to search. 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. On Dec. 6, 1988, a magnitude-3 earthquake hit northern Armenia, though it received little attention because of the perceived lack of serious seismic risk in the area. American Red Cross President Dick Schubert surveys the damage in Armenia following the earthquake in December. The Armenian National Survey for Seismic Protection was founded in 1991, in addition to the Emergency Management Administration. While Western media portrayed the Soviet relief operation as inadequate and reflective of the "wider failures of the Soviet system," international relief efforts can be considered to have been equally inadequate due to the non-compatible medical equipment and out-of-date medications supplied. 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. On the day of the quake, two men arrive in their home town only to be caught up in the terrible events and must work together to rescue as … The U.S. — and the world — responded. Although the Soviet Union had said that reconstruction should take roughly two years, by 1989, it was clear that reconstruction was going to take at least nine more years. This is an incomplete list of earthquakes in Armenia. Few seismologists thought an earthquake as powerful as the one in 1988 was possible in the region, according to a 1989 review paper published in Nature. Other Soviet republics simply returned home `` without fulfilling their commitments... United with an outpouring of assistance for relief efforts, which led to more deaths:. Been bombed Armenia shook for approximately 30 seconds cut off 45 tons of medical personnel were.... The crash overall, 342 villages and 11 cities were damaged despite the efforts... 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