On a cold December morning in 1988, a series of devastating earthquakes shook Armenia. This area of the world has been plagued by earthquakes for centuries, and severe tremors have been recorded there as far back as 550 B.C. But as with most earthquakes, this one came as a terrible shock to the citizens of Armenia, as one author explained:

The first of these devastating earthquakes radiated out from a rupturing fault at 11:41 A.M. local time and affected a population of 700,000 people, destroying large sections of the cities of Spitak, Leninakan and Kirovakan. In the surrounding countryside, 58 villages were leveled and 100 significantly damaged. One government estimate was that 25,000 people perished, based on the recovery of 24,944 bodies from the rubble. The earthquake left at least 514,000 homeless and 30,000 injured. . . . Parts of the area of strongest ground [were] highly industrialized with both light and heavy industry, such...