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Earthquake Damage, the Armenian SSR, December 7, 1988 |
| On December 7, 1988, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake shook northwestern Armenia, and was followed four minutes later by a magnitude 5.8 aftershock. The earthquakes affected an area 80 km in diameter. This set includes damage photographs taken in and around the devastated cities of Spitak and Leninakan, where 25,000 deaths occurred. It illustrates the structural types that were vulnerable to failure. |
Collapse of Stone Masonry Bearing-Wall, Alivar, Armenia | |
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Partial collapse of stone Masonry Bearing-Wall building north of Alivar, about 10 km SW of Kirovakan. Such load-bearing masonry-wall buildings were very common in large towns and cities in Armenia. This building type was unable to resist lateral shaking because of inadequate or lacking connections and bond beams tying the entire building together. Photo Credit: C.J. Langer, U.S. Geological Survey |
Collapsed Structures, Alivar, Armenia | |
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Partial collapse of stone masonry and concrete-frame composite buildings about 3 km north of Alivar. The components in these composite buildings, like those in the stone masonry buildings, were not connected with steel reinforcement. The grouted joints proved to be inadequate to hold the buildings together. Photo Credit: C.J. Langer, U.S. Geological Survey |
Collapsed Stone Masonry Building, Alivar, Armenia | |
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Collapsed stone masonry building near Alivar. The stone blocks were made of tuft (a lightweight stone composed of volcanic ash). The masonry walls supported hollow-core precast-concrete floor planks. Horizontal structural ties were inadequate or missing. There were also no connectors between floor planks and end walls. As a result these buildings collapsed at the corners and at the ends instead of at the center. Photo Credit: C.J. Langer, U.S. Geological Survey |
Collapsed Masonry Building, Arevashok, Armenia | |
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Collapsed stone masonry building with concrete roof (under the metal) at Arevashok north of Spitak. At least one person was killed when this building collapsed. In Spitak eighty percent of such masonry buildings collapsed. Photo Credit: C.J. Langer, U.S. Geological Survey |
Collapse of Composite Structure, Spitak, Armenia | |
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Partial collapse of composite structure with stone masonry infill walls near Spitak. More than 21,000 residences were destroyed and 700,000 people in northern Armenia were affected by this event. Photo Credit: C.J. Langer, U.S. Geological Survey |
Damage to Sugar Beet Refinery, Spitak, Armenia | |
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Sugar beet refinery northwest of Spitak. The structure is of masonry and concrete-frame construction. It is located on alluvium near the surface trace of the fault. The facility had many steel-frame and masonry bearing-wall buildings that lost their cladding but remained standing. Photo credit: C.J. Langer, U.S. Geological Survey |
Damage to Flour Mill Complex, Spitak, Armenia | |
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Large flour mill complex located on east outskirts of Spitak. The west end of the granary is shown. Rescue operations are in progress. Several people were rescued at this site after being buried for about two weeks. Photo Credit: C.J. Langer, U.S. Geological Survey |
Damage to Granary Spitak, Armenia | |
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Shown here is the east end of the granary in the flour mill complex east of Spitak. Grain can be seen spilling out of the collapsed concrete shear-wall structures in the foreground. In the background are cast-in-place concrete grain silos. Most such silos had only minor damage. However, overall losses at the flour mill complex were large. Photo Credit: C.J. Langer, U.S. Geological Survey |
Damage to Communications Building, Spitak, Armenia | |
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This is the five-story communications building in Spitak. It is a pre-cast, concrete-frame composite structure. A portion of the frame is still standing on the back side of the building. The corner of the building that remains standing was further destroyed by fire that spread between floors following the earthquake. Pre-cast frame buildings were common in this area. These buildings had floor construction of individual hollow-core precast planks with no (or inadequate) connections between them to tie the floors together. This lack of adequate floor ties allowed the middle portions of buildings to collapse while the ends remained standing. Many of these structures collapsed contributing to the high death toll. Photo Credit: C.J. Langer, U.S. Geological Survey |
Partial Collapse of Masonry Building, Spitak, Armenia | |
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Partially collapsed five-story stone masonry building in Spitak. Such unreinforced buildings were all heavily damaged in Spitak, but in Leninakan many survived with little or no damage. Photo Credit: C.J. Langer, U.S. Geological Survey |
Partial Destruction of Masonry Building, Spitak, Armenia | |
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Partial destruction of five-story stone masonry bearing-wall building in Spitak. Photo Credit: C.J. Langer, U.S. Geological Survey |
Collapse of Stone Masonry Building, Spitak, Armenia | |
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Collapse of five-story stone masonry building in Spitak. Note that concrete floor planks are still hanging from ties to adjoining planks. Photo Credit: C.J. Langer, U.S. Geological Survey |
Damage to Central Spitak, Armenia | |
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Damage in the central area of Spitak. The collapsed structure in foreground was constructed of stone masonry, and the collapsed building behind it was constructed of precast-concrete slabs. Although these buildings failed, buildings in which panels and walls were held together by cast-in-place concrete joints performed well. Structural steel buildings also held up well. Photo Credit: G. Sobolev, Academy of Sciences of U.S.S.R. |
Damage Concrete-Frame Building, Leninakan, Armenia | |
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Damage to four story building in Leninakan resulting from poor ties between floors and walls. Such a collapse in the middle of pre-cast, concrete-frame buildings was common. Leninakan's location along the eastern banks of the Akhurian River also contributed significantly to the damage. Most buildings in the area were built on shallow foundations on thick sections of clay, sand, soil, and tuffs which amplified and increased the duration of the ground motions. Photo Credit: G. Sobolev, Academy of Sciences of U.S.S.R. |
Collapse of Floors, Leninakan, Armenia | |
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Collapse of diaphragms (floors) leaving walls standing in building in Leninakan. Note planks hanging from ties to adjoining planks. This three-story building is one of the older buildings. Most of the newer one- and two-story dwellings and two- and three-story commercial buildings in Leninakan received little damage. The debris of a nine-story building is to the right. 132 nine-story pre-cast, concrete-frame buildings collapsed or were heavily damaged in this city. Such collapses left no spaces for occupant survival. Photo Credit: C.J. Langer, U.S. Geological Survey |
Collapse of Masonry Church, Leninakan, Armenia | |
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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. Photo Credit: C.J. Langer, U.S. Geological Survey |
Earthquake-induced Landslide, Alivar, Armenia | |
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Earthquake-induced landslide covering houses on east-facing slope west of Alivar. There were hundreds of landslides caused by the earthquake. Rock on steep slopes that had been weakened by weathering provided ideal conditions for the formation of rock falls. Slumping and sliding of soil deposits occurred on more gentle slopes. Photo Credit: C.J. Langer, U.S. Geological Survey |
Iceberg Produced by Broken Pipe near Spitak, Armenia | |
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Iceberg produced by broken water pipe in the foothills north of Spitak. The fountaining water caused the erosional pattern. The water system in Spitak was badly damaged. Bottled water was distributed to survivors. Photo Credit: C.J. Langer, U.S. Geological Survey |
Thrust fault, Armenia | |
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A portion of the thrust fault showing uplift of 1.3 m. The surface rupture was between 8 and 13 km long. This is an unusually short rupture for a reverse event of this magnitude and depth. Reverse-thrust and right-lateral movement occurred along the rupture surface. A maximum of 1.6 m of vertical displacement and 0.5 m of right-lateral displacement occurred on the fault. Photo Credit: G. Sobolev, Russian Academy of Sciences |
Right-lateral Strike Slip Fault near Spitak, Armenia | |
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View of the right-lateral strike slip motion along the fault southwest of Spitak. The monument on the right (in the distance) is above Spitak. The strike of the surface faulting changed in orientation where it left bedrock and entered alluvium near the southern part of Spitak. Note offset of sugar beet rows. The damage to agriculture alone was more than $13.3 billion. Photo Credit: C.J. Langer, U.S. Geological Survey |