Today is the 34rd anniversary of Spitak earthquake.
At 11:41 a.m. local time on December 7, 1988, a devastating earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8-7.2 occurred in the northwestern part of Armenia. Almost the entire northern part of the republic, where about 1 million people lived, was destroyed in half a minute by powerful earthquakes. At the epicenter of the earthquake in Spitak, the magnitude of the shakes reached 9-10.
About 40% of the industrial potential of the Armenian SSR was destroyed due to the earthquake.
As a result of the earthquake, Spitak Town and 58 villages were completely destroyed, Leninakan (now Gyumri), Stepanavan, Kirovakan (now Vanadzor) towns and more than 300 settlements were partially destroyed.
25,000 people were killed. 514,000 people were left homeless. 45,000 alive people were removed from the ruins, 12,500 people were hospitalized.
The cost of material losses was estimated at 10 billion US dollars.
Despite the intensity of the Cold War, a few days after the earthquake, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev formally asked the United States for humanitarian aid (for the first time since World War II). 113 countries sent significant amounts of humanitarian aid to the Soviet Union in the form of rescue equipment, search teams, and medical supplies.
The information is taken from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia.
December 07, 2022 at 14:21