Antioch earthquake 115

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Antioch earthquake 115
Antioch earthquake 115 (Turkey)
Bullseye1.svg
date December 13, 115
Time At night
intensity XI  on the MM scale
Magnitude 7.5  M S
epicenter 36 ° 6 ′ 0 ″  N , 36 ° 6 ′ 0 ″  E Coordinates: 36 ° 6 ′ 0 ″  N , 36 ° 6 ′ 0 ″  E
country Asia Minor , Syria in the Roman Empire
Tsunami Yes
dead ~ 260,000

The antioch earthquake in 115 occurred on December 13, 115. It reached an estimated magnitude of 7.5 on the surface wave magnitude scale and an estimated maximum intensity of XI ( catastrophe ) on the Mercalli scale . Antioch on the Orontes and the surrounding areas were badly damaged. It triggered a local tsunami that severely damaged the port of Caesarea Maritima . The Roman Emperor Trajan and his successor Hadrian were hit by the earthquake. While the consul Marcus Pedo Vergilianus was killed in the earthquake, they only suffered minor injuries and later set up a program to rebuild the city.

tectonics

The area around Antioch is close to the complex Triple Junction between the northern end of the Dead Sea Transformation , the Transform Fault between the African Plate and the Arabian Plate , the southwestern end of the East Anatolian Fault , the transformation boundary between the Anatolian Plate and the Arabian Plate and the northeastern end of the Arch of Cyprus, the border between the Anatolian and African plates. The city is located in the Antakya Basin, which is part of the Amik Basin. It is filled with alluvial sediments from the Pliocene . The area has been rocked by several major earthquakes over the past 2,000 years.

The rifting at the northern end of the Dead Sea Transformation suggests that three major earthquakes have occurred along the Missyaf area since about AD 100, the earliest being the 115 earthquake.

Damage

The historian Cassius Dio provides a description of the earthquake in his Roman History . He describes that at the time of the earthquake, Antioch was home to many civilians and soldiers from all over the empire, as Trajan had found his winter quarters there. The earthquake started with a loud thunder, followed by a strong shake of the ground. Entire trees and residents of the city were thrown into the air, causing serious injuries. Many people were killed by falling debris, including others. The aftershocks that occurred a few days later killed some of the survivors while those trapped starved to death. Trajan was able to leave the house he was in through a window and suffered only minor injuries. Due to the danger of aftershocks, he and his entourage moved to the open hippodrome .

The city of Apamea on the Orontes was also destroyed by the earthquake and Beirut was badly damaged. The tsunami triggered by the earthquake reached the Lebanese coast, particularly Caesarea and Javne . The port of Caesarea was probably destroyed by the tsunami. This assumption is supported by the dating of a half meter thick tsunamite found outside the harbor .

The figure of 260,000 fatalities is uncertain, since it only appears in works from the last hundred years.

aftermath

The reconstruction of Antioch began under Trajan, but was only completed under Hadrian. Trajan had a copy of the Tyche statue by Eutychides built on the new theater to commemorate the reconstruction. Almost all of the mosaics found in Antioch date from the time after the earthquake.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ National Geophysical Data Center: Comments for the Significant Earthquake . Retrieved October 19, 2011.
  2. ^ CE Fant, MG Reddish: Antioch on the Orontes . In: A guide to biblical sites in Greece and Turkey . Oxford University Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-19-513917-4 , p. 303 (Accessed October 20, 2011).
  3. ^ Cassius Dio , Roman History 68: 24-25
  4. ↑ E. Çaktı: Antakya Basin Strong Ground Motion Network . 2011. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
  5. ↑ a b M. Meghraoui, F. Gomez, R. Sbeinati, J. van der Woerd, M. Mouty, AN Darkal, Y. Radwan, I. Layyous, H. Al Najjar, R. Darawcheh, F. Hijazi, R Al-Ghazzi, M. Barazangi: Evidence for 830 years of seismic quiescence from palaeoseismology, archeoseismology and historical seismicity along the Dead Sea fault in Syria . In: Elsevier (Ed.): Earth and Planetary Science Letters . 210, No. 1-2, 2003, pp. 35-52. bibcode : 2003E & PSL.210 ... 35M . doi : 10.1016 / S0012-821X (03) 00144-4 .
  6. ↑ a b J. Bennett: Trajan: Optimus Princeps: a Life and Times  (= Roman imperial biographies Batsford Series), 2nd edition 1997, ISBN 978-0-415-16524-2 , pp. 199-201 (accessed on 20 October 2011).
  7. ↑ MR Sbeinati, R. Darawcheh, M. Mouty: The historical earthquakes of Syria: an analysis of large and moderate earthquakes from 1365 BC to 1900 AD . In: Annals of Geophysics . 48, No. 3, 2005, pp. 347-435. Retrieved October 22, 2011.
  8. ^ EG Reinhardt: The tsunami of 13 December AD 115 and the destruction of Herod the Great's harbor at Caeserea Maritima, Israel . In: Geological Society of America (Ed.): Geology . 34, No. 12, 2006, pp. 1061-1064. bibcode : 2006Geo .... 34.1061R . doi : 10.1130 / G22780A.1 . Retrieved October 20, 2011.
  9. ^ R. Musson: The ten deadliest ever earthquakes . British Geological Survey . March 7, 2001. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
  10. ^ MT Boatwright: Hadrian and the Cities of the Roman Empire . Princeton University Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-691-09493-9 , p. 138.
  11. ↑ L. Dirven: The Palmyrenes of Dura-Europos: A Study of Religious Interaction in Roman Syria  (= Religions in the Graeco-Roman world), Volume 138. BRILL, 1999, ISBN 978-90-04-11589-7 , p 112 (Accessed October 20, 2011).
  12. ^ M. Hengel, AM Schwemer: Paul Between Damascus and Antioch: The Unknown Years . Westminster John Knox Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0-664-25736-1 , p. 478 (accessed October 20, 2011).

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