On December 7, 1988, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck near the town of Spitak in Northern Armenia. It caused enormous damage, including close to 25,000 lives lost, more than 20,000 injured, 314 collapsed buildings, 641 irreparably damaged buildings, and 360,000 people who lost their homes. Most affected was the city of Leninakan, which is now named Gyumri.
Vahram Ter-Matevosyan, a 10-year old student at the time, was caught in the ruins of his school in Leninakan. His article, On the Edge of Life and Death: 18 Hours Under the Ruins, published in the EVN Report on the 29th anniversary of the event in 2017, provides a gripping firsthand account of his experience that day.
The account will be of interest to all who are concerned about the effects of earthquakes on constructed facilities and people who occupy them. Mihran Agbabian (Distinguished Alumnus of CEE at UC Berkeley) and I served on a reconnaissance team organized by the National Academy of Sciences that visited the earthquake zone 12 days after the event. Affected by what we saw, and as a part of the Armenian diaspora’s effort to help the country recover, we proposed establishing an American University in Armenia. The proposal was successful, and the American University of Armenia (AUA) was founded in 1991 in collaboration with the University of California. The story of the earthquake, the establishment of AUA in affiliation with UC, and its remarkable advancement over the past 33 years are chronicled in my recent book, From Earthquake Tragedy to Beacon of Light: The Story of the American University of Armenia.
Dr. Ter-Matevosyan is now a professor in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences of AUA.
Armen Der Kiureghian,
Taisei Professor of Civil Engineering Emeritus, UC Berkeley,
President Emeritus, AUA