EN
7 December 2009 - 13:38 AMT

Alvaro Antonyan: Spitak earthquake repetition impossible

21 years have passed since Spitak earthquake. We learnt much from this disaster. We’ll always be proud of people who risked their lives trying to help the victims and pass on the lesson learnt to the next generations, Alvaro Antonyan , Head of National Seismic Protection Service said at today’s news conference.

According to him, information awareness is the best way to prevent hard consequences of earthquake. “With people duly prepared, the number of 1988 earthquake victims could be reduced by 30%.”.

“We agreed with France on the provision of 500 000 euros’ worth seismic system, complete with 10stations, to be established in Vayk. 5 of them will be launched this year,” Alvaro Antonyan noted, adding that repetition of Spitak earthquake would be impossible these days. Any earthquake could be predicted several months in advance by Armenian seismic service, he noted.

As Head of National Seismic Protection Service reported, a number of perceptible earthquakes was decreased over the last years. 11 were registered in 2007, 10 in 2008, 7 in 2009. 2009’s hardest earthquake hit Garni, while in Yerevan earthquake magnitude was registered at 3-4 .