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Kagan et. al. (2011)

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Appendix C: Paleoseismic Considerations Regarding the Mid 8th Century B.C. Earthquakes

[78] An earthquake at this time has been linked historically to the prophecy by Amos of Tekoa mentioned numerous times in the bible (e.g., Amos 1:1, dated to 760 B.C.). In the rigorous historical work by Guidoboni et al. [1994] this event is considered the only Biblical earthquake with sound and direct historical evidence. Previous discussions in the literature regarding the occurrence of one or two earthquakes [Austin et al., 2000] can now be resolved by the paleoseismic evidence here. The Ein Feshkha (EFE), Ein Gedi (EG), and Zeelim (ZA2) seismite records show two seismites at around this time. At EG the two seismites are separated by 4 cm while at ZA2 by 10 cm, and at EFE by 6 cm, which is comparable to a few decades.

[79] The apparent southward decrease in extent of damage at archeological sites in the region led Austin et al. [2000] to suggest an epicenter in Lebanon with local magnitude estimated at about 8. They argued that the recurrence interval of earthquakes during historical times was around a century and merged all damage observed in 8th century B.C. sites to one event. This argument has no basis in fact since there is a plentitude of evidence for couplets of earthquakes, for example the 1202 and 1212 A.D. [Guidoboni et al., 1994; Amiran et al., 1994; Guidoboni and Comastri, 2005].

Paleoseismological as well as historical evidence summarized by Agnon et al. [2006, Figure 13] points to recurrence intervals of [50ÃD] 73 years for the period of 1000ÃD=1800 A.D. Archaeological evidence of events is abundant throughout the area (see map of Austin et al. [2000, Figure 1]). Additional support of two events includes studies at Megiddo archeological site [Marco et al., 2006] also show two deformation events, one postdating 800 B.C. and the other postdating 700 B.C. The archeological dating of the strongest evidence for shaking has a resolution of approximately 100 years, so it could correlate with the Dead Sea seismites. Paleoseismic trenches at the Tel Rehov archeological site near Bet Shean revealed a fault scarp created by two seismic events, one in the 7th and 6th century B.C. [Zilberman et al., 2004]. Our results, in addition to those of other paleoseismological and archaeological studies, support two earthquakes during the mid8th century B.C.

References

Kagan, E., et al. (2011). "Intrabasin paleoearthquake and quiescence correlation of the late Holocene Dead Sea." Journal of Geophysical Research 116(B4): B04311.

Kagan, E., et al. (2011). "Correction to Intrabasin paleoearthquake and quiescence correlation of the late Holocene Dead Sea." Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth 116(B11): B11305.