The Garnì (Armenia) large earthquake on 14 June 1679: a new analysis

The 1679 Garnì earthquake was one ofthe most destructive seismic events inArmenia, and one of the most widelydocumented directly by Armenian sources,considering this is an area where historical documentation is, on the whole,rather scarce. Moreover, this earthquakeappears in the literature as the result ofvarious interpretative and research models,so there are contradictory assessments ofits impact and its parameters: itsmagnitude oscillated between 5.5 and 7, andepicentral intensity between VIII and Xdegree. Even its location varied by over40 km. This contribution aims to enhancethe acquired knowledge of this earthquakeby applying a methodology of analysis tothe available information that has alreadygiven positive results in historicalseismology in Europe. On the grounds of thenew sources and with a critical review ofpreviously known ones, the authors canprovide new and more accurate data on theearthquake, along with a detailed outlineof the characteristics of the buildingsaffected and the historical and demographicconditions under which the earthquakeoccurred. Moreover, the data has beensupplemented with a direct observationof the monuments still standing, thusrevealing some of the earthquake'spreviously unassessed damaging effects. Theauthors have clearly arranged the use ofdata pertaining to different typologies,maintaining the evidence of suchdiversities even in the evaluation of themacroseismic intensity. This methodologicalapproach has been adopted in order toevaluate the seismic effects in an areawith a low density of historicaldocumentation. As a result, the effects ofthis earthquake could be estimated at 34sites (of which 20 documented from coevalsources and 14 on the grounds of directobservations). For this event there isalso a good geological database regardingthe active fault of Garnì. Hence, thisstudy has also represented a test forcomparing the results of the historicalresearch with the known geological data.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article: Latin America: Case Studies . Richard G. Boehm and Sent Visser Locality and Rurality: Economy and Society in Rural Regions . Tony Bradley And Philip Lowe The City and the Grassroots . Manuel Castells Geopolitics and Conflict in South America. Quarrels among Neighbors . Jack Child Post-Industrial America: A Geographical Perspective . David Clark Coastal Research: UK Perspectives . Malcolm W. Clark A Rural Policy for the EEC? Hugh Clout Peasant Agriculture in Assam: A Structural Analysis . M. M. Das . Environmental Change and Tropical Geomorphology . I. Douglas and T. Spencer Advances in Abandoned Settlement Analysis: Application to Prehistoric Anthrosols in Colombia, South America . Robert C. Eidt Measuring Culture . Jonathan L. Gross and Steve Rayner North America: A Human Geography . Paul Guinness and Michael Bradshaw A Geographical Bibliography for American Libraries . Chauncy D. Harris et al. Geography and the Urban Environment: Progress in Research and Applications, Vol. VI . D. T. Herbert and R. J. Johnston Changes in Global Climate: A Study of the Effect of Radiation and Other Factors During the Present Century . K. Ya . Kondrat'ev . Rural Development and the State: Contradictions and Dilemmas in Developing Countries . David A. M. Lea and D. P. Chaudhri The Martial Metropolis: U.S. Cities in War and Peace . Roger W. Lotchin The Climate of the Earth . Paul E. Lydolph . Weather and Climate . Paul E. Lydolph . Spatial Divisions of Labor: Social Structures and the Geography of Production . Doreen Massey . Panorama of the Soviet Union . N. Mikhailov . Soviet Armenia . K. S. Demirchian . USSR: Geography of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan Period . K. Spidchenko . Planung und Verwirklichung der Wiener Ringstrassenzone (Planning and Materialization of the Ringstrasse-Zone of Vienna). Kurt Mollik , Hermann Reining , Rudolf Wurzer . The American West Transformed: The Impact of the Second World War Gerald D. Nash . An Overview of the Survey of Income and Program Participation . Dawn Nelson , David Mc Millen, and Daniel Kasprzyk . Phenomenology, Science and Geography: Spatiality and the Human Sciences . John Pickles . Biological Diversification in the Tropics . Ghillean T. Prance Die Wanderviehwirtschaft im gebirgigen Westen der U.S.A. und ihre Auswirkungen im Naturraum . Gisbert Rinschede . Social and Economic Aspects of Radioactive Waste Disposal: Considerations for Institutional Management . World-Wide Weather . K. Takahashi Coastal Geomorphology in Australia . B. G. Thom Settlement System in Rural India: A Case Study of the Lower Ganga-Yamuna Doab . Ram Chandra Tiwari . Computer Programming for Geographers . David J. Unwin and John A. Dawson . Late Quaternary Environments of the Soviet Union . A. A. Velichko, ed . H. E. Wright , Jr. and C. W. Barnosky Ethics in Planning . Martin Wachs     

Ethnic conflict as a risk amplifier for resurgent P. vivax malaria in temperate zones: A case study from the Caucasus region

One of the most protracted post-Soviet conflicts of the 1990s was a territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the contested Karabakh region. Years of ethnic violence led to the displacement of nearly a million refugees, as well as a public health crisis that included epidemics of malaria, diphtheria and other preventable diseases. Malaria is not usually considered a health risk in temperate climates, but seasonal epidemics were widespread throughout the Caucasus in the early decades of the twentieth century. This paper combines qualitative historical research with geospatial analysis to explore how endemic malaria was controlled during the Soviet era, and how ethnic conflict reconfigured local ecologies to facilitate the re-emergence of P. vivax after the Soviet collapse in the 1990s. This research reveals that ethnic conflicts have specific qualities that increase risks of infectious and vector borne disease outbreaks, even in places that have successfully achieved a modern health and mortality profile. The risk amplifiers of ethnic conflicts include 1) the creation of contested spaces controlled by separatists that are outside of any national public health surveillance system; 2) mass population movements and refugee outflows due to ethnic violence; and 3) changes in land use that expand potential mosquito breeding sites throughout the conflict zone. Continued hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan, combined with the repopulation of key vector species (specifically An. sacharovi) lead us to conclude that populations in the Caucasus remain vulnerable to resurgent outbreaks of ethno-nationalist violence as well as the return of seasonal malaria, even after decades of successful control.