Earthquake Damage, Armenian SSR, December 7, 1988

Dataset Identification:

Resource Abstract:
On December 7, 1988, at 11:41 A.M. local time a magnitude 6.9 earthquake shook northwestern Armenia and was followed four minutes later by a magnitude 5.8 aftershock. Swarms of aftershocks, some as large as magnitude 5.0, continued for months in the area around Spitak. The earthquakes hit an area 80 km in diameter including the towns of Leninakan, Stepanavan, Kirovakan, and Spitak (Republic of Armenia). The region is part of a broad seismic zone stretching from Turkey to the Arabian Sea near India. Here, the Arabian land mass is slowly colliding with the Eurasian plate and thrusting up the Caucasus Mountains in the north. The earthquake occurred along a fairly small thrust fault running northwest-southeast, apparently right under Spitak. During the earthquake, the Spitak section to the northeast of the fault rode up over the southwest side. Geologists have located a 1.6 meter-high, 8-km long scarp just southeast of Spitak where fault movement broke the surface. The earthquake epicenter was located in the Lesser Caucasus highlands, 80 km south of the main range of the Caucasus Mountains. Historically, this area has experienced damaging earthquakes. In 1899 and 1940, damaging earthquakes occurred within 100 km of the 1988 epicenter. These events had magnitudes of 5.3 and 6.0 respectively. In 1920, a 6.2 magnitude earthquake that killed forty people occurred north of Spitak. In 1926, an earthquake of about magnitude 5.6 occurred 20 km southwest of Leninakan and reportedly caused more than 300 deaths and extensive damage. Despite its moderate size, the deaths and damage that the December 1988 earthquake caused made it the largest earthquake disaster since the 1976 magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Tangshan, China, that killed more than 240,000 people. The Town of Spitak (population 25,000) was nearly leveled and more than half of the structures in the City of Leninakan (population 250,000) were damaged or destroyed. Damage also occurred in Stepanavan and Kirovakan and other smaller cities. Direct economic losses were put at $14.2 billion (U.S.) at the United Nations official exchange rate. Twenty-five thousand were killed and 15,000 were injured by the earthquake. In addition 517,000 people became homeless. However, 15,000 people were rescued. Most of these rescues were made within the first few hours following the disaster. Many factors contributed to the magnitude of the disaster, including freezing temperatures, time of day, soil conditions, and inadequate building construction. A large number of medical facilities were destroyed, killing eighty percent of the medical professionals. In this earthquake, both design deficiencies and flawed construction practices were blamed for the large number of building collapses and resulting deaths. Many of the modern multi-storied buildings did not survive. Soil conditions also contributed to building failures. The high death rate may in part be attributed to the way the buildings fell apart. When concrete floor panels about three feet wide collapsed into compact rubble piles, little open space was left where trapped people might survive. The proportion of survivors trapped in the rubble of multi-storied buildings was approximately 3.5 times higher for the ground floor than for higher floors. The collapse of a large number of apartments-which had many occupants on upper floors-added to the number of fatalities. While the earthquake exposed the flaws in the construction, it also exposed the good in people. International teams cooperated in rescue efforts and people around the world contributed financial aid. With undaunted determination, Armenians began to rebuild their cities and their lives.
Citation
Title Earthquake Damage, Armenian SSR, December 7, 1988
publication  Date   1994
Edition First
presentationForm 
cited responsible party - originator
organisation Name  DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NGDC > National Geophysical Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce (comp)
cited responsible party - publisher
organisation Name  National Geophysical Data Center
Contact information
Address
, Boulder, CO
Topic Category:  geoscientificInformation
Keywords:
Theme keywords (theme):
EARTH SCIENCE > SOLID EARTH > Seismology > Earthquake Occurrences
EARTH SCIENCE > SOLID EARTH > Tectonics > Faults
thesaurus name >
Title NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
Theme keywords (theme):
Disasters > Catastrophic phenomena > Earthquakes
Lithosphere > Faults > Faults
Lithosphere > Seismic activity > Seismic activity
thesaurus name >
Title INFOTERRA Keyword Thesaurus
Theme keywords (theme):
Photo
Natural Hazard
Interior & Crust
thesaurus name >
Title Uncontrolled Keywords
Theme keywords (theme):
WDC/MGG, BOULDER > World Data Center for Marine Geology and Geophysics, Boulder
DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NGDC > National Geophysical Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce
thesaurus name >
Title NASA/GCMD Data Center Keywords
Location keywords:
Asia > Armenia
thesaurus name >
Title Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
purpose:
To provide long-term scientific data stewardship for the Nation's geophysical data, ensuring quality, integrity, and accessibility.
Browse image (thumbnail):
thumbnail file name:  ...
file type: JPEG
thumbnail file description:  Collapse of an old stone masonry Armenian church in Leninakan. Churches are vulnerable to earthquake damage because of their high, unsupported roofs. Many such historical buildings either collapsed totally or sustained severe damage.
Resource language:  eng; USA
Resource progress code:  completed
Resource Maintenance Information
maintenance or update frequency:  irregular
Constraints on resource usage:
Legal Constraints
Access Constraints  otherRestrictions
use constraint:  otherRestrictions
Other constraints
Access Constraints: None Use Constraints: None Distribution Liability: While every effort has been made to ensure that these data are accurate and reliable within the limits of the current state of the art, NOAA cannot assume liability for any damages caused by any errors or omissions in the data, nor as a result of the failure of the data to function on a particular system. NOAA makes no warranty, expressed or implied, nor does the fact of distribution constitute such a warranty.
Resource extent
Geographic Extent
Geographic Bounding Box
westBoundLongitude  44.16
eastBoundLongitude  44.3
northBoundLatitude  41
southBoundLatitude  40.48
Temporal Extent
Publication Date 1988-12-07
Credits:
Patricia Lockridge
point of contact - pointOfContact
individual Name Heather McCullough
organisation Name  DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NGDC > National Geophysical Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce
Contact information
Telephone
Voice (303) 497-3707
Fax (303) 497-6513
Address
NOAA/NESDIS/NGDC E/GC3 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO, 80305-3328 Country USA
electronic Mail Address Heather.McCullough@noaa.gov
hoursOfService 7:30 - 5:00 Mountain
contact Instructions
Contact Data Center
Back to top:

Resource distribution information

Distributor
distributor contact - distributor
individual Name User Services
organisation Name  DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NGDC > National Geophysical Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce
Contact information
Telephone
Voice (303) 497-6826
Fax (303) 497-6513
Address
NOAA/NESDIS/NGDC E/GC 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO, 80305-3328 Country USA
electronic Mail Address ngdc.info@noaa.gov
hoursOfService 7:30 - 5:00 Mountain
Standard ordering process
fees $25.00 plus handling and shipping outside the USA
Ordering Instructions  Non-Digital Form: 35 mm slides; Earthquake Damage, Armenian SSR, December 7, 1988 Ordering Instructions: Product may be ordered via the online store: http://ols.nndc.noaa.gov/plolstore/plsql/olstore.prodspecific?prodnum=G01204-SLI-A0001 Custom Order Process: Contact Data Center
turnaround
4 Days
Standard ordering process
fees None
Ordering Instructions  Ordering Instructions: Product may be downloaded via: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/results?eq_1=11&t=101634&s=0&d=4&d=44 Custom Order Process: Contact Data Center
turnaround
None
Standard ordering process
fees $195.00/145.00 plus handling and shipping outside the USA
Ordering Instructions  Ordering Instructions: Product may be ordered via the online store: http://ols.nndc.noaa.gov/plolstore/plsql/olstore.prodspecific?prodnum=G01268-CDR-A0001 Custom Order Process: Contact Data Center
turnaround
4 Days
Format
Format name TIFF
Format version 
Format
Format name TIFF
Format version 
Digital Transfer Options
transfer Size 26674
Linkage for online resource
URL: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/results?eq_1=11&t=101634&s=0&d=4&d=44
Linkage for online resource
URL: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazard/
Linkage for online resource
URL: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/results?eq_1=11&t=101634&s=0&d=4&d=44
Digital Transfer Options
Medium of distribution
name  cdRom
medium Format  iso9660

Metadata data stamp:  2011-04-06
Resource Maintenance Information
maintenance or update frequency: 
notes: This metadata was automatically generated from the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata: Extensions for Remote Sensing Metadata standard version FGDC-STD-012-2002 using the June 2011 version of the FGDC RSE to ISO 19115-2 transform. The Spatial Reference Information is not currently mapped over to ISO but will be mapped in future versions.
Metadata contact - pointOfContact
individual Name Heather McCullough
organisation Name  DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NGDC > National Geophysical Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce
Contact information
Telephone
Voice (303) 497-3707
Fax (303) 497-6513
Address
NOAA/NESDIS/NGDC E/GC3 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO, 80305-3328 Country USA
electronic Mail Address Heather.McCullough@noaa.gov
hoursOfService 7:30 - 5:00 Mountain
contact Instructions
Contact Data Center
Metadata scope code  dataset
Metadata language  eng; USA
Metadata character set encoding:   utf8
Metadata standard for this record:  ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data
standard version:  ISO 19115-2:2009(E)
Metadata record identifier:  gov.noaa.ngdc.mgg.photos:G01204

Metadata record format is ISO19139-2 XML (MI_Metadata)