This award is for support of the work of the U.S. research team that commenced field work in Armenia following the catastrophic earthquake that struck on December 7, 1988. The work of the multidisciplinary U.S. team has emphasized the following areas: - mapping of surface fault rupture, - deploying arrays of instruments to monitor seismicity and to record strong ground shaking from the aftershock sequence, - examining damaged and collapsed buildings and acquiring drawing for further analysis, - inspecting seismoscope and accelerograph records of the main shock, and large aftershocks, - visiting the nuclear power plant near Yerevan, - mapping landslides and liquefaction, - examining the performance of lifelines, and - determining human and societal behavior in the emergency response and recovery environments. This research effort should provide important lessons for earthquake hazard mitigation in the U.S. as well as the U.S.S.R.
