1068 Near East earthquake

Series of earthquakes in the Arabian Peninsula and Palestine

1068 Near East earthquake

Cairo

Jerusalem

Alexandria

Local date| 18 March and 29 May 1068[1]
Local time| Morning
Magnitude| ≥Mw 7.0[2]
Epicenter| 29°30′N 34°57′E﻿ / ﻿29.5°N 34.95°E﻿ / 29.5; 34.95[3]
Areas affected| Near East
Total damage| Extreme[3]
Max. intensity| MMI IX (Violent)[3]
Casualties| ~20,000[4]

Two major earthquakes occurred in the Near East on 18 March and 29 May, AD 1068. The two earthquakes are often amalgamated by contemporary sources.[1] The first earthquake had its epicentre somewhere in the northwestern part of the Arabian Peninsula around Tabuk, while the second was most damaging in the city of Ramla in Palestine, some 500 km to the northwest.[1]

The March earthquake affected the southern portion of the Dead Sea Transform (DST) fault system. The combined events were responsible for an estimated 20,000 deaths, of which some 15,000 occurred in Ramla alone, and caused damage throughout Greater Syria, including Palestine, where a tsunami devastated the Mediterranean coast, in Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula, and in areas to the east along the Euphrates such as al-Rahba and Kufa.[1] Other strong earthquakes have occurred in the southern portion of the DST throughout history, impacting the wider region.

## Geological setting

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The Dead Sea Transform (DST) is a 1,000 km (620 mi) transform fault that spans from the Red Sea in the south to the East Anatolian Fault in Turkey to the north. The southern extent of the DST is known as the Wadi Araba fault (after the Arabah valley). This portion of the DST runs 160 kilometers (99 mi) from north of Aqaba/Eilat to south of the Dead Sea and has a slip rate of 4 mm ±2 mm per year.[5] The temporal pattern of large events has not been clarified yet, with only four well-documented large earthquakes reported in the Araba valley over the last few thousands of years occurring in 1068, 1212, 1293 and 1458 CE.[2]

In 1998, Zilberman thought to locate the epicentre of the 1068 event at the Avrona playa, i.e. in the southern part of the Arava Valley.[6][7] Ambraseys (2005) separates between a March event with the epicentre near Tabuk, and a May event closer to Ramla.[1]

## Effects

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The earthquake's effects were seen from as far north as Banias at the southern foot of Mount Hermon, to the Hejaz region of modern-day Saudi Arabia. The ancient city of Ayla, located at the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba where modern Aqaba stands today, was destroyed. Palaeoseismic investigations have revealed more than 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) of fault rupture, beginning just north of Aqaba/Eilat, that were dated between 900 and 1,000 years before present. A magnitude of at least 7.0 was presented based on the reported damage and the extent of the observed fault breaks.[2]

Alarm was caused at Saint Catherine's Monastery on the Sinai Peninsula, and there was damage in the ancient city of Tinnis in the Nile delta, but not farther to the west along the Egyptian coast in Alexandria. In Cairo the only damage was to a corner of the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in Fustat. Seismologist Nicholas Ambraseys described one account of the effects at Ramla as destructive and with a large loss of life (15,000 deaths, 200 of which were boys at a school). He also expounded on the effects to the north in Banias, where 100 were killed, and in Jerusalem, where the roof of the Dome of the Rock was "displaced and then returned to its former position". Those that were affected by the heavy damage in Ramla apparently migrated to Jerusalem, which indicated to Ambraseys that the effects there were otherwise minimal.[1]

## Other events

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In addition to the event in 1068, the southern portion of the DST has experienced three other historical events (all having an estimated magnitude of 6.5–7.0) with two in the northern section near the Dead Sea, and one closer to Aqaba. The event in 1212 caused significant damage to towns in the Arabah Valley as well as the destruction of a church on the Sinai Peninsula. In 1293, near the southern portion of the Dead Sea, an earthquake destroyed three towers of a castle[dubious - discuss] and caused damage between the Dead Sea and Gaza. In 1458, another event again affected the southern Dead Sea area, this time causing a 2.2 m (7 ft 3 in) left-lateral offset at Qasr at-Tilah ("Tilah Castle", a Roman or Early Byzantine square fort, ca. 25 km south of the Dead Sea). The fort was built across the fault and the building that housed the water tank sustained the displacement.[5]

## See also

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* List of earthquakes in Egypt
* List of earthquakes in the Levant
* List of historical earthquakes
* Ramla, regional capital destroyed in 1068 that never recovered

## References

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1. ^ a b c d e f Ambraseys, N. N.; Melville, C. P.; Adams, R. D. (2005). The Seismicity of Egypt, Arabia and the Red Sea: A Historical Review. Cambridge University Press. pp. 30–32, 101. ISBN 978-0-521-02025-1.
2. ^ a b c Klinger, Y.; Avoua, J. P.; Dorbath, L.; Abou Karaki, N.; Tisnerat, N. (2000). "Seismic behaviour of the Dead Sea fault along the Araba valley, Jordan". Geophysical Journal International. 142 (3). Wiley-Blackwell: 772. Bibcode:2000GeoJI.142..769K. doi:10.1046/j.1365-246x.2000.00166.x.
3. ^ a b c National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service (NGDC/WDS) (1972), Significant Earthquake Information, National Geophysical Data Center, NOAA, doi:10.7289/V5TD9V7K
4. ^ Abdel Fattah, Ali K.; Hussein, Hesham M.; Ibrahim, Ezzeldien M.; Abu El Atta, Ahmad S. (1997), "Fault plane solutions of the 1993 and 1995 Gulf of Aqaba earthquakes and their tectonic implications", Annali di Geofisica, XL (6), National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology: 1557
5. ^ a b Yeats, R. (2012), Active Faults of the World, Cambridge University Press, pp. 293, 294, 296, ISBN 978-0521190855
6. ^ Zilberman, Ezra; Amit, Rivka; Porat, Naomi; Enzel, Yehouda. Surface ruptures induced by the devastating 1068 AD earthquake in the southern Arava valley, Dead Sea Rift, Israel. Tectonophysics 408(1–4):79–99 (abstract), October 2005, doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2005.05.030. Accessed 22 August 2020.
7. ^ Klinger (2005), see References: Zilberman E. et al. (1998)

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Historical earthquakes (1000 AD–1500 AD)

11th-century|

* 1026 Manju
* 1033 Jordan Valley
* 1038 Dingxiang
* 1068 Near East
* 1088 Tmogvi
* 1096 Eichō

12th-century|

* 1114 Marash
* 1117 Verona
* 1138 Aleppo
* 1139 Ganja
* 1157 Hama
* 1169 Sicily
* 1170 Syria
* 1185 East Midlands

13th-century|

* 1202 Syria
* 1222 Brescia
* 1222 Cyprus
* 1269 Cilicia
* 1275 British
* 1290 Zhili
* 1293 Kamakura

14th-century|

* 1303 Crete
* 1303 Hongdong
* 1343 Naples
* 1348 Friuli
* 1349 Apennine
* 1356 Basel
* 1361 Shōhei
* 1382 Dover Straits

15th-century|

* 1420 Caldera
* 1428 Catalonia
* 1456 Central Italy
* Haowhenua
* 1461 L'Aquila
* 1475 Tenochtitlan
* 1481 Rhodes
* 1491 Cyprus
* 1498 Meiō

16th-century|

* 1505 Lo Mustang
* 1509 Constantinople
* 1511 Idrija
* 1513 Marash
* 1522 Almería
* 1522 Vila Franca
* 1536 Xichang
* 1531 Lisbon
* 1555 Kashmir
* 1556 Shaanxi
* 1570 Concepción
* 1570 Ferrara
* 1575 San Salvador
* 1575 Valdivia
* 1580 Dover Straits
* 1582 Ancuancu
* 1584 Aigle
* 1585 Aleutian Islands
* 1586 Tenshō
* 1586 Lima–Callao
* 1596 Keichō–Fushimi
* 1590 Neulengbach

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Earthquakes in Africa

Historical|

* 1068 Near East (≥ 7.0)
* 1624 Fez earthquake (6.0)
* 1716 Algiers (7.0)
* 1754 Cairo (6.6)
* 1755 Meknes (7.0)
* 1761 Morocco (8.5)
* 1790 Oran (6.0)
* 1825 Blida (7.0)
* 1856 Djijelli (IX)
* 1856 Middle East (7.7–8.2)

20th century|

* 1913 Asmara (VI)
* 1915 Asmara (VI)
* 1921 Massawa (6.1)
* 1954 Chlef (6.7)
* 1955 Alexandria (6.3)
* 1960 Agadir (5.8)
* 1963 Marj (5.6)
* 1969 Tulbagh (6.3)
* 1966 Toro (6.8)
* 1969 Portugal (7.9)
* 1969 Sharm El Sheikh (6.6)
* 1980 El Asnam (7.1)
* 1983 Guinea (6.3)
* 1989 Malawi (6.3)
* 1989 Chenoua (5.9)
* 1990 South Sudan (7.1)
* 1992 Cairo (5.8)
* 1994 Mascara (5.9)
* 1995 Gulf of Aqaba (7.3)
* 1999 Aïn Témouchent (5.6)

21st century|

* 2002 Kalehe (6.2)
* 2003 Boumerdès (6.8)
* 2004 Al Hoceima (6.3)
* 2005 Lake Tanganyika (6.8)
* 2006 Mozambique (7.0)
* 2008 Lake Kivu (5.9)
* 2009 Karonga (6.0)
* 2010 Beni-Ilmane (5.3)
* 2011 Nabro (5.7)
* 2014 Orkney (5.5)
* 2015 South Kivu (5.8)
* 2016 Tanzania (5.9)
* 2017 Botswana (6.5)
* 2023 Morocco (6.8)

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Earthquakes in the Levant

Classic era|

* 115 Antioch earthquake
* 363 Galilee
* 526 Antioch earthquake
* 528 Antioch earthquake
* 551 Beirut earthquake

Middle ages|

* 749 Galilee
* 847 Damascus
* 859 Syrian coast
* 1033 Jordan Valley
* 1068 Near East
* 1138 Aleppo
* 1157 Hama
* 1170 Syria
* 1202 Syria
* 1344 Syria

Ottoman era|

* 1759 Near East
* 1796 Latakia
* 1822 Aleppo
* 1834 Jerusalem
* 1837 Galilee
* 1856 Heraklion
* 1872 Amik

Contemporary|

* 1927 Jericho
* 1955 Alexandria
* 1956 Chim
* 1969 Sharm El Sheikh
* 1995 Gulf of Aqaba
* 2023 Turkey–Syria

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