Ministry of Emergency Situations (Russia)
The Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief is a Russian government agency overseeing the civil emergency services in Russia.
Ministry headquarters in Moscow
Russian Post stamp about EMERCOM
Russian Post stamp about EMERCOM
Sergei Shoigu was Minister from 1991 to 2012
The 1988 Armenian earthquake, also known as the Spitak earthquake, occurred on December 7 at 11:41 local time with a surface wave magnitude of 6.8 and a maximum MSK intensity of X (Devastating). The shock occurred in the northern region of Armenia which is vulnerable to large and destructive earthquakes and is part of a larger active seismic belt that stretches from the Alps to the Himalayas. Activity in the area is associated with tectonic plate boundary interaction and the source of the event was slip on a thrust fault just to the north of Spitak. The complex incident ruptured multiple faults, with a strike-slip event occurring shortly after the initiation of the mainshock. Between 25,000 and 50,000 were killed and up to 130,000 were injured.
The Holy Saviour's Church in Gyumri after the earthquake
A French search and rescue worker searches for buried people with the aid of a detection dog
Mikhail Gorbachev with Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush in New York on the day of the earthquake
Image: Armenia 1