| Text (with hotlink) | Original Language | Biographical Info | Religion | Date of Composition | Location Composed | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Posidonius as quoted in Geographicum by Strabo | Greek - Strabo Greek - Posidonius |
|
Strabo - 7 BCE - ~23 CE Posidonius - before c. 51 BCE |
Strabo - Amaseia in Pontus with some sections perhaps written at other locations. Posidonius - Rhodes |
describes an earthquake which destroyed two thirds of Sidon and was felt moderately over all of Syria
stating that in Phoenicia, says Poseidonius, on the occasion of an earthquake, a city situated above Sidon was swallowed up, and nearly two-thirds of Sidon itself was engulfed too, but not all at once, so that no considerable destruction of human life took place. The same operation of nature extended also over the whole of Syria, but with rather moderate force. This earthquake is not well dated. As noted by Ambraseys (2009) and others, Book I Chapter 3 by Strabo is not ordered chronologically. It is ordered thematically. However, because the account of an earthquake near Sidon is (mistakenly) conflated with earthquakes in the Cyclades, Euboea, and Chalcis along with a volcanic eruption in the Lelantine Plain, the dates of these alleged events might help estimate the date of the Posidonius Quake near Sidon. Ambraseys (2009) suggests that the earthquake in the Cyclades refers to an earthquake that caused damage in the nearby Dodecanese which he dates to the second century BCE based on several inscriptions reported by Roberts (1978). |
|
| Posidonius as quoted in Questionaes Naturales by Seneca the Younger | Latin - Seneca Greek - Posidonius |
|
Seneca - ~62-65 CE Posidonius - before c. 51 BCE |
Seneca - Rome Posidonius - Rhodes |
While describing a Greek Island that was swallowed up, Seneca states that you may take Posidonius for witness that the same thing happened to Sidon.A date was not provided. |
|
| 525 BCE Catalog Entries | Brief Earthquake Catalogs can't be trusted. | |||||
| Text (with hotlink) | Original Language | Biographical Info | Religion | Date of Composition | Location Composed | Notes |
| Location (with hotlink) | Status | Intensity | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sidon | possibly missing evidence | Marinner et al (2006) and
Carayon et al (2011) reported on
15 cores taken around the northern harbor and four around the cirque ronde.
There is no mention of tsunamogenic evidence in the cores. Marinner et al (2006:1521) noted that
in Unit B2 (Closed Phoenician to Roman harbours) persistent age-depth anomalies concur analogous data in Tyre’s ancient harbour where strong chronostratigraphic evidence for dredging has been detailed from the Roman period onwards.This may indicate that, like at Tyre, any evidence of a 1st millennium BCE tsunami may have been removed by dredging. |
|
| Tyre | missing evidence | Marriner et al (2005) undertook a litho and biostratigraphical study of four core sequences from the landward edge of the current harbor. AMS radiocarbon dating was performed on dateable material found in the cores. They attributed missing 1st millennium BCE strata to dredging activity undertaken in the Roman and Byzantine periods. | |
| Location (with hotlink) | Status | Intensity | Notes |
| Location (with hotlink) | Status | Intensity | Notes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dinar Trenches | possible - indeterminate | ≥ 7 | Altunel et al (1999) claim evidence for a ~80 BCE Apamea Earthquake in Event 2 from their trenches but only two useful radiocarbon dates were obtained in their paleoseismic study. The date constraints from these two samples are large (~1550 BCE - 1360 ± 50 CE) and their historical earthquake assignment is speculative - based on consulting earthquake catalogs during that time span. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hacipasa Trenches | possible | ≥ 7 | The oldest event identified in the Ziyaret Trench dated to before 983 CE. A lower bound on age was not available due to insufficient radiocarbon dates. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tekieh Trenches | possible | ≥ 7 | Gomez et. al. (2003:15) may have seen evidence for an earthquake in the 1st or 2nd century BCE in Event B. Event B is estimated to have created ~ 2 meters of left lateral strike slip displacement which translates to an estimated Magnitude between 7.0 and 7.3 (7.0 and 7.2 according to Gomez et al, 2003:16-17). In terms of dating, an upper bound for Event B is 170 BCE - 20 CE while a lower bound for Events B and and the older Event C is from 1690 - 1400 BCE. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tabarja Benches | possible | Mw = ~7.5 | Elias et al (2007)
examined uplifted benches on the Lebanese coast between Sarafand and Tripolis; some in the vicinity of Tabarja
(~20 km. NE of Beirut). They identified four uplifts from 3 or more [sizeable Mw = ~7.5] earthquakesin the past ca. 6-7 ka. They attributed the latest uplift (B1) to the 551 CE Beirut Quake while the earlier events (B2, B3, and B4) were no more precisely dated than between ~5000 BCE and 551 CE. Bench uplift on the earlier events (B2, B3, and B4) would likely have been due to uplift on the Mount Lebanon Thrust system - as was surmised for Event B1 and the 551 CE Beirut Quake. |
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| Jarmaq Trench | possible | ≥ 7 | Nemer and Meghraoui (2006) date Event Y to between 2920-2879 BCE and 84-239 CE | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Qiryat-Shemona Rockfalls | possible | Kanari, M. (2008) examined rockfalls in Qiryat-Shemona which were attributed to earthquakes. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating was performed on soil samples beneath the fallen rocks. Kanari et al (2019) assigned Sample ID QS-6 to an earthquake in 199 BCE but the wide spread in ages indicate that this event could have occurred between ~400 BCE and ~200 CE. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bet Zayda | possible | ≥ 7 | Wechsler at al. (2014) records event CH4-E6 with a modeled age of 392 BCE – 91 CE. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jordan Valley - Dir Hagla Trenches | possible | ≥ 7 | Reches and Hoexter (1981) report that Event A was dated from 200 BCE - 200 CE and exhibited 3.5 m of vertical displacement. Although the total vertical displacement could have been created by more than one seismic event, there were no broken layers between Event A the next Event (B) which was dated to between 700 and 900 CE. Further, they interpreted Event A created a fault scarp on the site. Kagan, E., et al. (2011) noted that the dip slip could have been magnified by local variations in the strike of the fault. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dead Sea - Seismite Types | n/a | n/a | If the Posidonius Quake struck
somewhere between Tyre and Sidon (possibly offshore), it's epicenter might have been ~170-250 km. away from the Dead Sea Paleoseismic sites. If one assumes a magnitude
of 6.5, this leads to projected PGAs of 0.08-0.12 g at the Dead Sea sites. At a magnitude of 7.0,
those numbers go up to 0.14-0.21 g. This is below the 0.23 g threshold calculated by
Williams (2004)
but is, in some cases, above the 0.13 g threshold assumed in
Lu et al (2020a) that one needs to break the Dead Sea sediments. This leads to the conclusion that if the
Posidonius Quake did leave a mark in the Dead Sea, it likely would have been a
powerful earthquake with a Magnitude of 7.0 or greater. If the Posidonius Quake
was that powerful, however, it might be expected to have produced more accounts than just the one by Posidonius, a native of the region, and to have wrecked more havoc in Syria
than was reported by Posidonius who wrote that it extended also over the whole of Syria, but with rather moderate force. |
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| Dead Sea - Nahal Darga | possible | ≥ 7 | Enzel et. al. (2000) identified a 20 cm. thick seismite in coarse grained lithology in Deformed Unit 8 in Stratigraphic Unit 10 which dated to 450-50 BCE (2400-2000 yrs BP). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dead Sea - En Feshka | <possible | 5.7 - 8.8 | Kagan et al (2011) identified several seismites from around 199 BCE.
|
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| Dead Sea - En Gedi | possible | Migowski et. al. (2004) did not date any seismites to around 199 BCE. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dead Sea - Nahal Ze 'elim | possible | 8.2 - 8.9 | At site ZA-2, Kagan et al (2011) observed a 8 cm. thick Type 4 intraclast breccia seismite at a depth of 552 cm. with modeled ages of 225 BCE ± 35 (1σ) and 225 BCE ± 75 (2σ). Although they assigned it a 199 BCE date, the ~250 BCE Fortress at Arad Quake is a more likely candidate. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location (with hotlink) | Status | Intensity | Notes |