Earthquake off Crete 365

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Earthquake off Crete 365
Earthquake off Crete 365 (Mediterranean)
Bullseye1.svg
date July 21, 365
Magnitude estimated ≥ 8  M W
epicenter 35 ° 0 ′ 0 ″  N , 23 ° 0 ′ 0 ″  E Coordinates: 35 ° 0 ′ 0 ″  N , 23 ° 0 ′ 0 ″  E
(southwest of Crete)
country Neighboring the eastern Mediterranean

The earthquake off Crete in 365 AD was an undersea earthquake in the eastern Mediterranean , whose subsequent tsunami at dawn on July 21st 365 devastated the coastal regions of central and southern Greece , Libya , Egypt , Cyprus and Sicily . The epicenter is now believed to be near Crete. The strength of the quake is expected at a magnitude have lain of 8 or higher.

The shores of the eastern Mediterranean, the Nile Delta and Alexandria were particularly hard hit by the destruction caused by the tsunami , where, according to Ammianus Marcellinus, thousands of people were killed and ships were carried up to two miles inland. Almost all cities in Crete were damaged or destroyed. The quake left a deep impression on the collective memory of the late ancient population. Many of the writers of the time referred to this event.

Geological evidence

Crete

Recent studies see the earthquake in Crete in 365 AD in connection with an accumulation of large seismic activities in the eastern Mediterranean between the 4th and 6th centuries AD, which perhaps caused a reactivation of all major plate boundaries in the region. The earthquake is said to have caused the island of Crete to rise by 9 meters. This suggests an estimated seismic moment of ~ 10 21  Nm . An earthquake of this magnitude exceeds any one in the region today. However, a re-evaluation of the radiocarbon dating suggests that the island elevation came later.

Literary evidence

Historians continue to debate the question of whether the historical events relate to a single catastrophic earthquake in 365 or whether they represent a series of earthquakes occurring between 350 and 450 due to intermingling throughout history. The interpretations of contemporary writings are overlaid by the interpretations of later ancient writers who describe natural disasters as divine responses or warnings to political or religious events.

Large parts of Apollonia in Libya went under

In particular, the sharp contrasts between emerging Christianity and paganism at this time tempted contemporary writers to falsify evidence. For example, the sophist Libanios and the church historian Sozomenos tried to portray the earthquake of 365 along with other weaker quakes, depending on the point of view, either as divine mourning or as anger on the occasion of the death of the Roman emperor Julian two years earlier. This ruler had tried to restore the pagan faith. The relatively frequent references to earthquakes at a time otherwise marked by a lack of historical records indicate that there was a period of increased seismic activity at the time. From Kourion on Cyprus , for example, is known to have been struck within 80 years from five strong earthquake that led to the permanent destruction of the city. Another clue for the particularly devastating effects of the earthquake of 365 are the evaluations of excavations that document the destruction around 365 in many late antique settlements and cities in the eastern Mediterranean.

Tsunami

The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus described how the tsunami hit Alexandria and other places in the early hours of July 21, 365 AD. His report is particularly noteworthy for the clear distinction between the three main phases of a tsunami, namely the initial earthquake, the sudden retreat of the sea and the subsequent gigantic tidal wave that rolled inland:

Nile Delta

"... shortly after daybreak, after the violent lightning and thunder had preceded it in rapid succession, the entire earth fortress shook to the ground, and the sea receded from the shore with churned waves, so that one bared Abyss saw the most diverse creatures of the sea lying in the mud, and whole stretches of mountain and valley, which creating nature had hidden in immeasurable depths, then, as one could well believe, saw the rays of the sun. Numerous ships stood next to each other as if on dry ground, and a multitude of people ran around without hesitation in the small remains of water, picking up fish and the like with their hands, when suddenly the waves of the sea rose up and reversed, as if in anger at this forced retreat broke through the boiling shallows over islands and extensive stretches of the mainland and razed innumerable buildings in cities and where the like stood, just as if under the furious struggle of the elements the dark face of the earth brought the most wonderful phenomena to view. The sea tide returning in a moment - when it was least expected - buried many thousands of people, and in the impetuous retreat of the waves, as was shown afterwards, when the excitement of the damp element had subsided, a great number of ships had perished , and the corpses of the castaways drifted face up or down on the surface. Ships of enormous size had been torn out by the raging storm, and were now sitting on the level of houses, as was the case in Alexandria: some were hurled from the shore up to 200 paces inland ... "

- Ammianus Marcellinus : Res gestae, Book 26 (translation by Carl Büchele, 1854)

The tsunami of 365 AD was so devastating that at the end of the 6th century Alexandria remembered the "Day of Terror" on the anniversary of the catastrophe. The destruction also reached coastal cities on the African coast much further to the west, such as B. Neapolis in what is now Tunisia, which was badly destroyed, as underwater archaeologists discovered in 2017.

gallery

Visible traces of the ancient earthquake have survived to this day.

See also

literature

  • Kelly, Gavin: Ammianus and the Great Tsunami . In: The Journal of Roman Studies . tape 94 , November 2004, p. 141-167 , doi : 10.2307 / 4135013 (English).
  • Stathis C. Stiros: The AD 365 Crete earthquake and possible seismic clustering during the fourth to sixth centuries AD in the Eastern Mediterranean: a review of historical and archaeological data . In: Journal of Structural Geology . tape 23 , February 2001, p. 545-562 , doi : 10.1016 / S0191-8141 (00) 00118-8 (English).
Literary discussion about sources and the return of the earthquake to Providence
  • GJ Baudy: The return of Typhon. Catastrophe topoi in post-Julian rhetoric and annals: on literary reflexes of July 21, 365 AC JAC, Vol. 35 (1992), pp. 47-82
  • M. Henry: Le temoignage de Libanius et les phenomenes sismiques de IVe siecle de notre ere. Essai d'interpretation. In: Phoenix , 39, 36-61 (1985)
  • F. Jacques, B. Bousquet: Le raz de maree du 21 juillet 365. In: Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome. Antiquité (MEFRA), Vol. 96, No. 1 (1984), pp. 423-61
  • C. Lepelley: Le presage du nouveau desastre de Cannes: la signification du raz de maree du 21 juillet 365 dans l'imaginaire d 'Ammien Marcellin. In: Kokalos , Vol. 36-37 (1990-91), pp. 359-374
  • M. Mazza: Cataclismi e calamitä naturali: la documentazione letteraria. In: Kokalos, 36-37 (1990-91), pp. 307-330
Geological discourse
  • Bibliography in: E. Guidoboni (with A. Comastri and G. Traina, transl. B. Phillips): Catalog of Ancient Earthquakes in the Mediterranean Area up to the 10th Century. 1994
  • D. Kelletat: Geological Evidence of Catastrophic Earth Crustal Movements 365 AD in the area of ​​Crete. In: E. Olhausen and H. Sonnabend (eds.): Natural disasters in the ancient world. Stuttgart Colloquium on the Historical Geography of Antiquity, Volume 6, pp. 156–161, 1996 (1998)
  • P. Pirazzoli, J. Laborel, S. Stiros: Earthquake clustering in the Eastern Mediterranean during historical times. Journal of Geophysical Research, 101: 6083-6097 (1996)
  • S. Price, T. Higham , L. Nixon, J. Moody: Relative sea-level changes in Crete: reassessment of radiocarbon dates from Sphakia and West Crete. In: BSA, Vol. 97 (2002), pp. 171-200
  • B. Shaw et al .: Eastern Mediterranean tectonics and tsunami hazard inferred from the AD 365 earthquake. Nature Geoscience, pp. 1-9, published online: March 9, 2008
  • G. Waldherr: The birth of the "cosmic catastrophe". The major seismic event on July 21, 365 AD. Orbis Terrarum, Vol. 3, pp. 169–201, 1997

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Today in Earthquake History ( Memento from October 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Stathis C. Stiros: The AD 365 Crete earthquake and possible seismic clustering during the fourth to sixth centuries AD in the Eastern Mediterranean: a review of historical and archaeological data . In: Journal of Structural Geology . tape 23 , February 2001, p. 545-562 , doi : 10.1016 / S0191-8141 (00) 00118-8 (English).
  3. ↑ Simon Jusseret, Charlotte Langohr, Manuel Sintubin: Tracking Earthquake Archaeological Evidence in Late Minoan IIIB ( 1300–1200 BC) Crete (Greece): A Proof of Concept . In: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America . Vol. 103, No. 6 . Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven 2013, p. 4 ( Online [accessed May 10, 2015]).
  4. ↑ a b Ammianus Marcellinus , "Res Gestae", October 26, 15-19
  5. ↑ a b Kelly, Gavin: Ammianus and the Great Tsunami . In: The Journal of Roman Studies . tape 94 , November 2004, p. 141-167 , doi : 10.2307 / 4135013 (English).
  6. ↑ Stiros, Stathis C .: The AD 365 Crete earthquake and possible seismic clustering during the fourth to sixth centuries AD in the Eastern Mediterranean: a review of historical and archaeological data . In: Journal of Structural Geology , Vol. 23, 2001, pp. 545-562 (545f.).
  7. ↑ D. Soren: The Day the World Ended at Kourion. Reconstructing an Ancient Earthquake . In: National Geographic , Vol. 174, No. 1, (July, 1988), pp. 30-53.
  8. ↑ Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman History, translated by Dr. Carl Büchele . tape 6 . Buchhandlung JB Metzler , Stuttgart 1854, twenty-sixth book, p. 679–689 ( Roman History in Google Book Search).
  9. ↑ Hecht, Jeff: “ Mediterranean's 'horror' tsunami may strike again, ” NewScientist.com news service March 10, 2008
  10. ↑ Rosemarie Frühauf: Gigantic tidal wave swallowed Roman city: Now the ruins have been found. Epoch Times, September 3, 2017, accessed July 21, 2020 .
  11. ↑ 'Tsunami-sunk' Roman ruins discovered in Tunisia. phys.org, August 31, 2017, accessed July 21, 2020 .