Effects and lessons of the 1948 Ashgabat earthquake

A.Ya. Sidorin

Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

e-mail: al_sidorin@hotmail.com

Abstract

In connection with the 70th anniversary of the Ashgabat earthquake of October 5, 1948, various points of view on the maximum intensity of the effects of this seismic event, seismic dislocations, the focal mechanism, the number of victims and other aspects are considered. Solutions to some controversial problems are suggested. The photos are presented of the earthquake environmental effects and the destruction of buildings caused by the earthquake from the personal archive of  V.F. Bonchkovsky, who was the head of the Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences, conducted a long-time detailed investigation of the earthquake effects in the epicentral region. V.F. Bonchkovsky was a famous geophysicist, Honored Scientist of the USSR, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, Professor. Documents and photos from the archive of Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earths of the Russian Academy of Sciences are also used. The most important consequences of the earthquake and its influence on the development of seismology, including engineering, are considered.

Keywords: Ashgabat earthquake, earthquake parameters, seismotectonic model, source, isoseist map, seismic dislocation, destruction, victims

About the author

SIDORIN Alexander Yakovlevich – Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Head of Laboratory. Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 123242, Moscow, ul. Bolshaya Gruzinskaya, 10, building 1. E-mail: sidorin@ifz.ru

Cite this article as: Sidorin A.Ya. Effects and lessons of the 1948 Ashgabat earthquake, Voprosy Inzhenernoi Seismologii (Problems of Engineering Seismology), 2018, Vol. 45, No. 3, pp. 84–97. [in Russian]. DOI: 10.21455/VIS2018.3-7

English translation of the article will be published in Seismic Instruments, ISSN: 0747-9239 (Print) 1934-7871 (Online), https://link.springer.com/journal/11990), 2019, Volume 55, Issue 3.