The Institute of Geophysics and Engineering Seismology was founded in 1961 in Leninakan, now Gyumri, on the initiative of academicians Viktor Ambartsumian and Armen Nazarov. For more than six decades it has studied earthquakes and the Earth’s physical fields in one of the most seismically active regions of the Caucasus.
Key dates
- 1959The Institute of Geophysics in Beijing orders 20 multi-pendulum seismometers designed by Armen Nazarov.
- 1961The institute is founded in Leninakan as part of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR. Academician Armen Nazarov becomes its first director and leads it for many years.
- 1988The Spitak earthquake destroys the institute’s building. Researchers continue their work in temporary premises for about 25 years, until the institute moves into its new building.
- 2013Jon Karapetyan becomes director of the institute.
- 2020Construction of the Gyulagarak geomagnetic observatory is completed in September.
- 2023Work begins on CHARNET, the China–Armenia seismic, strong-motion and geodynamic network, together with the Institute of Geophysics of the China Earthquake Administration.
- 2024CHARNET becomes a permanent network of nine stations streaming data to the Gyumri data centre.
- 2025The Armenian–Chinese seismic and GNSS network centre opens in Gyumri, with the first earthquake early warning system in the region.
Founder
Armen Georgievich Nazarov
1908–1983, academician of the Academy of Sciences of Armenia
Born in Paris in 1908, Armen Nazarov grew up and studied in Tbilisi, where he graduated from the Industrial Institute. His first papers, published in 1931, dealt with the vibration of structures during earthquakes, and earthquake-resistant construction remained at the centre of his work for five decades.
Together with K. S. Zavriev he extended dynamic methods of seismic analysis to complex structures. In his 1945 doctoral dissertation he proposed a spectral method for determining the seismic forces acting on buildings. From 1946 he worked in Yerevan as director and deputy director for research of the Armenian Research Institute of Building Materials and Structures, and taught earthquake engineering as a professor at the Yerevan Polytechnic Institute.
In 1961, with Viktor Ambartsumian, he founded the Institute of Geophysics and Engineering Seismology in Leninakan and led it for many years. Under his leadership the institute received the Order of the Red Banner of Labour. He chaired the Commission on Engineering Seismology of the USSR Academy of Sciences and, from 1981 to 1983, headed the Earth Sciences Division of the Academy of Sciences of Armenia. The institute bears his name.
- 150+
- scientific works, including 10 monographs
- 1945
- spectral method of seismic analysis
- 1960
- elected academician
- 1961
- founded the institute in Gyumri
He presented his work at international conferences in
- Madrid 1959
- Tokyo 1960
- Wellington 1965
- Santiago 1969
- London 1970
- Rome 1973
- Istanbul 1975
Selected monographs
- Method of Engineering Analysis of Seismic Forces1956, second edition 1959
- On the Mechanical Similarity of Solid Deformable Bodies: towards a theory of modelling1965
- Fundamentals of the Quantitative Determination of the Intensity of Strong Earthquakes1974, with S. S. Darbinyan
- Elements of Transfinite Analysis
The first seismometer in the Caucasus
