An Unknown Devastating Earthquake. Revelation based on the Armenian national epic “David of Sassoun”

The journal “Priroda” quite long time ago has provided a new scientific direction in the Russian press: it uncovers earthquakes in the folk epic and thus, significantly replenishes the historical part of seismology, macroseismology. Naturally, we are talking about powerful, destructive earthquakes, since information about them in ancient times was preserved not only in various written sources, but also as oral history. The Armenian national epic “David of Sassoun” tells us about several (at least three) powerful (surface wave magnitude of 8–9) destructive earthquakes that occurred during several days on the vast area of the Sassoun Region of Greater Armenia. Probably, these events happened in the VIII–IX centuries (not later than the XIII century).

Armenia, region/area of Sassoun, folk epic, David of Sassoun, devastating earthquake