CHILD WARNING (CW) 1988 earthquake in Spitak, Armenia

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake occurred in Spitak, the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia (now Armenia) in 1988.

An earthquake was felt in central Armenia around 11 a.m. However, Armenia was originally located on the border of the Arabian and Eurasian plates like the other Caucasus regions, so earthquakes were frequent and people thought nothing of it and went back to their normal lives soon after preparing for an earthquake. However, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Armenia at 11:41 a.m. The massive earthquake forced the collapse of stone houses, which were not designed to be earthquake-resistant, and destroyed downtown Spitak, where most of the buildings collapsed. People were forced to be trapped in the collapsed buildings without time to avoid the earthquake, which contributed to the damage.

Since then, the Soviet government has immediately sent rescue teams to the scene, but because the majority of the city had collapsed and the roads were no different, the rescue teams could not arrive early and eventually start full-scale rescue after taking care of the surroundings. However, because of its size, the Soviet Union unusually actively asked Western countries for help, and several Western countries sent rescue teams to the Soviet Union

The earthquake damaged an estimated 25,000 to 50000 people and an estimated 31,000 to 1300 people injured, and destroyed most buildings in the city of Spitak.

Since then, the Soviet government has been struggling to recover due to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion, while Armenia has gained independence and has since been slow to recover due to internal problems and war, but most of it has been restored as Armenia's economic situation has improved.

What it looks like after the earthquake

South Korea also reported the earthquake as news.