From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 365 Crete earthquake
365 Crete earthquake
365 Crete earthquake
Date 21 July 365 (0365-07-21)
Magnitude 8.5+[1]
Epicenter 35°00′N 23°00′E / 35.0°N 23.0°E / 35.0;
23.0Coordinates: 35°00′N 23°00′E / 35.0°N
23.0°E / 35.0; 23.0[2]
Countries Greece, Crete
or regions
Tsunami yes
Uplift contours (metres) associated with the AD 365 earthquake
in western Crete after Flemming 1978
Casualties many thousands
The AD 365 Crete earthquake was an undersea earth-
quake that occurred at about sunrise on 21 July 365 in
the Eastern Mediterranean,[3][4] with an assumed epicen-
tre near Crete.[5] Geologists today estimate the quake to
have been 8 on the Richter Scale or higher,[4] causing
widespread destruction in central and southern Greece,
northern Libya, Egypt, Cyprus, and Sicily.[6] In Crete,
nearly all towns were destroyed.[4]
The Crete earthquake was followed by a tsunami
which devastated the southern and eastern coasts of the
Mediterranean, particularly Libya, Alexandria and the
Nile Delta, killing thousands and hurling ships 3 km
(1.9 mi) inland.[7] The quake left a deep impression on the
late antique mind, and numerous writers of the time re- Raised beach 2 km west of Paleochora showing wave-cut notch
ferred in their works to the event.[8] and sea caves uplifted by about 9 m during the earthquake
Geological evidence known to have affected the region.[4] However, a recent
reassessment of radiocarbon data indicates that the up-
Recent geological studies view the AD 365 Crete earth- lift most probably took place at a later date.[9]
quake in connection with a clustering of major seismic Researchers at the University of Cambridge recently
activity in the eastern Mediterranean between the 4th carbon dated corals on the coast of Crete which were
century and the 6th century AD which may have reflect- lifted 10 metres and clear of the water in one massive
ed a reactivation of all major plate boundaries in the re- push. This indicates that the tsunami of AD 365 was gen-
gion.[4] The earthquake is thought to be responsible for erated by an earthquake in a steep fault in the Hellenic
an uplift of 9 m of the island of Crete, which is estimat- Trench near Crete. The scientists estimate that such a
ed to correspond to a seismic moment of ~10^29 dyne large uplift is only likely to occur once in 5,000 years;
cm. An earthquake of such a size exceeds all modern ones
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 365 Crete earthquake
however, the other segments of the fault could slip on a
similar scale—and could happen every 800 years or so. It
is unsure whether "one of the contiguous patches might
slip in the future."[10][11]
Literary evidence
Nile Delta
ticularly noteworthy for clearly distinguishing the three
main phases of a tsunami, namely an initial earthquake,
the sudden retreat of the sea and an ensuing gigantic
Large parts of Apollonia, Libya, were submerged wave rolling inland:
Slightly after daybreak, and heralded by a thick
Historians continue to debate the question whether an- succession of fiercely shaken thunderbolts, the
cient sources refer to a single catastrophic earthquake in solidity of the whole earth was made to shake and
AD 365, or whether they represent a historical amalga- shudder, and the sea was driven away, its waves
mation of a number of earthquakes occurring between were rolled back, and it disappeared, so that the
AD 350 and 450.[12] The interpretation of the surviving abyss of the depths was uncovered and many-
literary evidence is complicated by the tendency of late shaped varieties of sea-creatures were seen stuck
antique writers to describe natural disasters as divine re- in the slime; the great wastes of those valleys and
sponses or warnings to political and religious events.[13] mountains, which the very creation had dismissed
In particular, the virulent antagonism between rising beneath the vast whirlpools, at that moment, as it
Christianity and paganism at the time led contemporary was given to be believed, looked up at the sun’s
writers to distort the evidence. Thus, the Sophist Liban- rays. Many ships, then, were stranded as if on dry
ius and the church historian Sozomenus appear to con- land, and people wandered at will about the paltry
flate the great earthquake of AD 365 with other lesser remains of the waters to collect fish and the like in
ones to present it as either divine sorrow or their hands; then the roaring sea as if insulted by
wrath—depending on their viewpoint—for the death of its repulse rises back in turn, and through the
emperor Julian, who had tried to restore the pagan reli- teeming shoals dashed itself violently on islands
gion, two years earlier.[14] and extensive tracts of the mainland, and flattened
On the whole, however, the relatively numerous ref- innumerable buildings in towns or wherever they
erences to earthquakes in a time which is otherwise char- were found. Thus in the raging conflict of the
acterized by a paucity of historical records strengthens elements, the face of the earth was changed to
the case for a period of heightened seismic activity.[15] reveal wondrous sights. For the mass of waters
Kourion on Cyprus, for example, is known to have been returning when least expected killed many
hit then by five strong earthquakes within a period of thousands by drowning, and with the tides
eighty years, leading to its permanent destruction.[16] whipped up to a height as they rushed back, some
Additional evidence for the particularly devastating ef- ships, after the anger of the watery element had
fect of the AD 365 earthquake is provided by a survey grown old, were seen to have sunk, and the bodies
of excavations which document the destruction of many of people killed in shipwrecks lay there, faces up or
late antique towns and cities in the Eastern Mediter- down. Other huge ships, thrust out by the mad
ranean around AD 365.[6] blasts, perched on the roofs of houses, as happened
at Alexandria, and others were hurled nearly two
Tsunami miles from the shore, like the Laconian vessel near
the town of Methone which I saw when I passed by,
The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus described in yawning apart from long decay.[17]
detail the tsunami hitting Alexandria and other places in
the early hours of 21 July AD 365.[7] His account is par-
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 365 Crete earthquake
The tsunami in AD 365 was so devastating that the an-
niversary of the disaster was still commemorated annu-
ally at the end of the 6th century in Alexandria as a "day
of horror".[18][19]
Gallery
Effects of the earthquake visible in the ancient remains:
science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VGS-4WC115K-2&_user=7763359
Retrieved 21 May 2011.
[2] NGDC. "Comments for the Significant Earthquake".
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/
results?eq_0=95&t=101650&s=13&d=22,26,13,12&nd=display.
Retrieved 21 May 2011.
[3] Today in Earthquake History
[4] ^ Stiros 2001, p. 545
[5] Stiros 2001, p. 546, fig. 1
[6] ^ Stiros 2001, pp. 558-560, app. B
[7] ^ Ammianus Marcellinus, "Res Gestae", 26.10.15-19
[8] For summaries of the sources, see: Stiros 2001,
pp. 557f., app. A
[9] Kelly 2004, p. 144
[10] "Fault found for Mediterranean ’day of horror’."
New Scientist magazine, 15 March 2008, p. 16.
[11] Shaw, B.; Ambraseys N.N., England P.C., Floyd M.A.,
Gorman G.J., Higham T.F.G., Jackson J.A., Nocquet
• Sea advanced close to the baths at Sabratha. J.-M., Pain C.C. & Piggott M.D. (2008). "Eastern
Mediterranean tectonics and tsunami hazard
inferred from the AD 365 earthquake". Nature
Geoscience 1 (4): 268–276. doi:10.1038/ngeo151.
http://renag.unice.fr/regal/PERSO/JMN/publis/
shaw_nature_2008.pdf. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
[12] Stiros 2001, pp. 545f.
[13] Kelly 2004, p. 145
[14] Stiros 2001, pp. 547 & 557f.
[15] Stiros 2001, p. 553
[16] Soren, D. (1988). "The Day the World Ended at
Kourion. Reconstructing an Ancient Earthquake".
National Geographic 174 (1): 30–53.
• Submerged harbors at Apollonia. [17] Kelly 2004, p. 141
• The no-longer-submerged harbor in Phalasarna. [18] Stiros 2001, pp. 549 & 557
[19] Hecht, Jeff: "Mediterranean’s ’horror’ tsunami may
strike again", NewScientist.com news service March
Footnotes 10, 2008
[1] Stiros, S.C. (2010). "The 8.5+ magnitude, AD365
earthquake in Crete: Coastal uplift, topography
changes, archaeological and historical signature".
See also
Quaternary International 216 (1-2). doi:10.1016/ • Historic tsunami
j.quaint.2009.05.005. • 426 BC Malian Gulf tsunami
http://www.sciencedirect.com/
3
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 365 Crete earthquake
References • D. Kelletat, "Geologische Belege katastrophaler
Erdkrustenbewegungen 365 AD im Raum von Kreta",
• Kelly, Gavin (2004), "Ammianus and the Great in E. Olhausen and H. Sonnabend (eds),
94:
Tsunami", The Journal of Roman Studies 94 141–167, Naturkatastrophen in der antiken Welt: Stuttgarter
doi:10.2307/4135013 Kolloquium zur historischen Geographie des Altertums 6,
• Stiros, Stathis C. (2001), "The AD 365 Crete 1996 (1998), 156–61
Earthquake and Possible Seismic Clustering During • P. Pirazzoli, J. Laborel, S. Stiros, "Earthquake
the Fourth to Sixth Centuries AD in the Eastern clustering in the Eastern Mediterranean during
Mediterranean: A Review of Historical and historical times", Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol.
23:
Archaeological Data", Journal of Structural Geology 23 101 (1996), 6083–6097
545–562, doi:10.1016/S0191-8141(00)00118-8 • S. Price, T. Higham, L. Nixon, J. Moody, "Relative sea-
Ievel changes in Crete: reassessment of radiocarbon
Further reading dates from Sphakia and West Crete", BSA 97 (2002),
171–200
Literary discussion on sources and providentialist ten- • B. Shaw et al., "Eastern Mediterranean tectonics and
dencies tsunami hazard inferred from the AD 365
• G. J. Baudy, "Die Wiederkehr des Typhon. earthquake", Nature Geoscience (published online: 9
Katastrophen-Topoi in nachjulianischer Rhetorik March 2008), 1–9
und Annalistik: zu literarischen Reflexen des 21 Juli • G. Waldherr, "Die Geburt der "kosmischen
365 n.C.", JAC 35 (1992), 47–82 Katastrophe". Das seismische Großereignis am 21.
• M. Henry, "Le temoignage de Libanius et les Juli 365 n. Chr.", Orbis Terrarum 3 (1997), 169–201
phenomenes sismiques de IVe siecle de notre ere.
Essai d’interpretation’, Phoenix 39 (1985), 36–61
• F. Jacques and B. Bousquet, “Le raz de maree du 21 External links
juillet 365“, Mélanges de l’Ecole française de Rome. • [1] National Geographic: Ancient Mediterranean
Antiquité (MEFRA), Vol. 96, No.1 (1984), 423–61 Tsunami may strike again
• C. Lepelley, "Le presage du nouveau desastre de • [2] Stanley, Jean-Daniel & Jorstad, Thomas F. (2005):
Cannes: la signification du raz de maree du 21 juillet The 365 A.D. Tsunami Destruction of Alexandria,
365 dans l’imaginaire d’ Ammien Marcellin", Kokalos, Egypt
36-37 (1990–91) [1994], 359–74 • [3] Ammianus Marcellinus Online Project
• M. Mazza, "Cataclismi e calamitä naturali: la • SCHEMM, PAUL. "Ancient Egyptian City of
documentazione letteraria", Kokalos 36-37 (1990–91) Leukaspis". AP/Yahoo News.
[1994], 307–30 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100907/ap_on_sc/
Geological discussion ml_egypt_ancient_city_by_the_sea_2. Retrieved 8
• Bibliography in: E. Guidoboni (with A. Comastri and September 2010. a.k.a. Antiphrae, newly dug out of
G. Traina, trans. B. Phillips), Catalogue of Ancient sand
Earthquakes in the Mediterranean Area up to the
10th Century (1994)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=365_Crete_earthquake&oldid=468375202"
Categories:
• Megathrust earthquakes in Greece
• Earthquakes in Crete
• Earthquakes in Libya
• 4th-century earthquakes
• 365
• Tsunamis
• Byzantine Crete
• Late Roman Greece
• Nile River Delta
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