They have noticed that several hours prior to a quake, hundreds of these snakes surface, head to the river, and swim downstream to congregate until the earthquake is over. Then they return, also en masse. The Armenian scientists are looking at three possible explanations for the behavior of the snakes. Although the snakes are deaf, they are very sensitive to infrasound and infrared. It is also possible that they sense minute chemical changes in HS concentrations.
Dogs seem to know when earthquakes are coming a few hours prior.
It also has library of more than 20,000 living bacteria cultures which are available for international access. They are putting all this into an electronic database. Of great significance is a databank of 2,500 species of biodestructors. They have developed a scale to measure the degree of bacterial damage and procedures to protect people and equipment exposed to biodestructors. In addition, the institute is developing a liquid protection coating to prevent biocorrosion and destruction of pipelines.