December 7: On This Day in World History … briefly
The source of the event was a fault rupture 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of the Caucasus Mountains, a mountain range that has been produced by the convergence of the Arabian and the Eurasian tectonic plates.
1988: Earthquake kills 100 000 in Armenia
More than 100 000 people were feared dead in an earthquake which devastated northern Armenia. The cities of Spitak and Leninakan near the Turkish border were virtually wiped out, with thousands buried alive in collapsed buildings.
Survivors tried to reach trapped relatives, struggling to move the shattered concrete and rubble that was all that remained of most of the apartment blocks.
The shocked country appealed for international help as emergency teams started massive rescue operations. On hearing the news, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev cut short his US trip and returned to Moscow to coordinate relief efforts.
The earthquake followed a year of ethnic violence between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno Karabakh.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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