Media Velocity Model and Macroseismic Effect: The Spitak Earthquake of December 7, 1988

International audience; Relationship between the intensity of seismic shaking on the surface and the velocity structure of the medium at large depth is studied. The Spitak earthquake of December 7, 1988 is chosen as an object of study. A method to correlate the intensity of shaking in the localities to the geophysical parameters specified in the nodes of regular spatial grid is proposed. Formalized definition of anomalous intensity is suggested; it takes into account the distribution of distances from the localities with given intensity degrees to the hypo center or to the nearest segment of the surface fault. It is found that the seismic wave velocities at a depth of 1 km are higher (up to 0.2-0.6 km/s) under the localities with anomalously high intensity. No any certain reg ularity is found in deeper layers.