Earthquakes in Yerevan

Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, faces a high seismic risk because it sits in the Armenian highlands within the broad collision zone where the Arabian plate drives northward into the Eurasian plate. This convergence crumples the crust across the Lesser Caucasus, producing active thrust and strike-slip faults, uplifted mountains and the volcanic terrain that surrounds the city. Several active faults lie close to Yerevan, and parts of the city are built on volcanic and sedimentary ground that can amplify shaking, so the capital is exposed to strong earthquakes generated on faults across the region.

The catastrophe that shapes Armenian seismic awareness is the Spitak earthquake of 7 December 1988, a magnitude 6.8 shock centred in the north of the country, roughly 80 to 100 kilometres from Yerevan. It devastated the towns of Spitak, Leninakan (now Gyumri) and Kirovakan, killing an estimated 25,000 to 50,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless, in large part because of poorly built Soviet-era concrete apartment blocks that pancaked. The disaster drew a major international relief effort during the final years of the Soviet Union and forced a complete rethinking of building standards. Although Yerevan itself escaped the worst of 1988, the same tectonic forces continue to make the capital and the wider region a place of serious ongoing seismic hazard.