Seismic Hazard Assessment in Armenia

An evaluation of seismic hazard assessment in the territory of Armenia is presented in this work. The catastrophic M = 7.0 Spitak earthquake in 1988 revealed the drawbacks of the acting seismic zoning map. Two seismic hazard maps have been compiled in NSSP RA during 1991–1996. The deterministic approach was applied in the first one and the probabilistic in the second one. Both maps were compiled on the basis of the same database. Comparison between the maps shows good correlation. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The New Seismic Zonation Map for the Territory of Armenia

In the present work a new, deterministic, seismic zonation map for the territory of Armenia is presented. It has been compiled on the basis of the newest seismological, geological and geophisical data. Creation of the map included: determination of a seismic hazard area for the territory of Armenia; compilation of a map of active faults; identification of active blocks; identification of seismic source zones; calculation of a seismic effect from the seismic source zones (SSZs). Seismic effect on the Earth's surface from the singled out SSZs is calculated in the form of an intensity of seismic influences expressed in units of MSK-64 scale, and horizontal soil accelerations expressed in fractions of gravity force acceleration (g). The map compiled will allow comparison between the deterministic model with a probabilistic seismic zonation model for the territory of Armenia (in preparation), in order to analyze the western and eastern standards of seismic hazard assessment on the basis of the same complete data base.