Scientists investigating the recent earthquake near Leninakan in Soviet Armenia have begun to come up with information that may help them understand the threat of future disasters in the region, one of the world's most seismically active and densely settled. One earthquake engineer has concluded that the seismic history of the area was a factor in the earthquakes's large death toll. 25,000 bodies have been recovered, and many more people may have been killed.The main shock was felt in northern Armenia for about half a minute at 11:41 AM local time. Current calculations from the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) in Boulder, Colo., show that the surface‐wave magnitude was 6.8. The epicenter was located at 40.94°N, 44.29°E, about 100 km northwest of Yerevan, Soviet Armenia's capital. Four minutes later a magnitude 5.8 aftershock hit the same area and hundreds of tremors have continued to shake the area. James Dewey of NEIC said the forms of seismic waves produced by the main shock suggest “that the earthquake was a multiple source event.”