Archaeoseismology

A geological study has been carried out along the 200 km long Wadi Araba following the transform fault that separates the Arabian and Sinai-African Plates. Recent movements along this structure affect upper Pleistocene-Holocene deposits and archaeological sites. Kinematic indicators show sinistral strike-slip and oblique movements, in agreement with the relative motion between the two plates. Other evidence of recent horizontal displacement exists along the Jordan Valley Fault, both on the Dead Sea-Lake Tiberias segment and on the segment north of Lake Tiberias. A minimum horizontal slip rate of 1 cm yr-• has been estimated for both the southern segment of the Wadi Araba Fault and for the southern Jordan River Fault. The two faults can be roughly subdivided into at least four segments: two in the Wadi Araba (80 km long each), one from the Dead Sea to Lake Tiberias (130 km), and one from Lake Tiberias to the Hula graben (>30 km). Faulting may also occur along shorter subsegments, as shown by bends in the Wadi Araba-Jordan River Fault and by the growth of local compression and extension features. Instrument-recorded seismicity appears to be mainly concentrated along some of these subsegments. A comparison between the observed seismic and field-determined slip rates across the fault indicates possible strain accumulation during the last 2000 years.

ABSTRACT The Bolonia Bay, close to the Strait of Gibraltar, hosts the Roman ruins of Baelo Claudia. In the first and third century AD, this ancient town was affected by two earthquakes. Several earthquake-related damages can be found inside the ruins, and the adjacent mountain ranges show features of Quaternary activity. Extensive paleoseismological and archaeoseismological investigations have been conducted at the archaeological site and in its environs. The first 14C dating results from damaged infrastructure are presented in this ...

This paper evaluates the application of photogrammetric recording to seismically-affected archaeological sites from the moment of on-site data acquisition through to the analysis of the resulting 3D model. This methodology facilitates (i) rapid but accurate recording of seismically-damaged archaeological contexts, (ii) three-dimensional reconstructions, (iii) the documentation of archeological features (e.g. plans, sections, elevations), and (iv) the extraction of additional information and data for archaeoseismological analysis (DEMs, for instance). Not only is greater detail observed using these methods but it can also be quantified at a distance from the target site, thereby extending the researcher's time in the field. 3D photogrammetry and modelling also reduce the risk that small but significant features such as seismic fractures and deformations are overlooked. This paper draws on evidence from two case studies of the EU-funded ArMedEa project (Archaeology of Medieval Earthquakes in Europe, 1000-1550 AD), namely the Islamic fortified village of El Castillejo (Guajar Faragüit, Granada, Spain) and the crusader castle of Saranda Kolones (Paphos, Cyprus).

This paper assesses the evidence for earthquakes at Laodikeia and Hierapolis with particular attention to their impact on late antique urbanism. In particular it raises the considerable methodological problems that earthquakes pose to both archaeologists and historians working at these two important sites. A discussion of the textual sources for earthquakes in the Lykos valley show that they can be very difficult to use as ‘hard evidence’  for the date of particular seismic catastrophes recovered in excavations. However, the archaeological projects at Laodikeia and Hierapolis have both adopted current archaeoseismological approaches, and future work is likely to improve our understanding of the chronological sequence and impact of earthquakes in the region.

The capacity of resilience to environmental risks in urban societies, is a major concern of disaster research. In the climatically and seismically complex region of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, analyses of the risks, vulnerability, and response of human societies to environmental risks in terms of social, economic, political, and technological changes are possible. In particular, the concepts and goals of disaster research applied as a framework to the cases of Akrotiri and Pompeii in their final phases during periods of frequent earthquakes prior to the catastrophic Bronze Age (c. 1630 BCE) and 79 CE eruptions reveal the complexities involved in determining when and how the added stress of seismic activity impacted early urban societies. Patterns of restoration and reconstruction activities highlight that the inhabitants developed as local seismic cultures with the capacity and resources to engineer seismic resilient architectures and to develop building regulations not codified under written policies, but rather through ideologies and knowledge passed between local members and generations. The examination of rebuilding activities prior to the Thera and Vesuvius eruptions have a number of shared insights, which can be applied to the study of earthquakes and associated natural disasters throughout the ancient Mediterranean and Near East where evidence of earthquakes is prevalent. Analyses of disaster response in ancient urban societies can even provide a source of knowledge for engineering communities to better assess seismic vulnerability and identify strategies to improve the resilience of buildings in modern urban contexts.

Jusseret S., Sintubin M. (2017). Earthquakes and Minoan Crete: breaking the myth through interdisciplinarity. In Minoan Earthquakes: Breaking the Myth through Interdisciplinarity, Jusseret S., Sintubin M. (eds). Studies in Archaeological Sciences 5. Leuven University Press: Leuven, 385-395.

Jusseret S. (2017). Archaeoseismological research on Minoan Crete: past and present. In Minoan Earthquakes: Breaking the Myth through Interdisciplinarity, Jusseret S., Sintubin M. (eds). Studies in Archaeological Sciences 5. Leuven University Press: Leuven, 223-247.

This work supposes to expose one of the oldest seismic episodes recorded in a population of the Iberian Peninsula, at least that is known until this moment. More precisely, in a small Phoenician fortress from the 8th century BC in the vicinity of Guardamar de Segura in Alicante (Spain). Next, the archaeological-historical context of the site is exposed, as well as the evidences of the earthquake still visible in the wall.

Key Words: Paleoismicity, geoarcheology, Phoenician fortress, archaeoseismic evidences, Guardamar, Alicante.

En este trabajo se presenta uno de los episodios sísmicos más antiguos registrados en una población de la Península Ibérica, al menos, que se tenga constancia hasta este momento. Más exactamente, en un poblado fortificado del siglo VIII a.C ubicado en las proximidades de Guardamar de Segura en Alicante (España). A continuación, se expone
tanto el contexto arqueológico-histórico del yacimiento, como las evidencias del terremoto visibles aún en la muralla.

Palabras clave: paleoterremoto, geoarqueología, fortaleza fenicia, arqueosismología, Guardamar de Segura.

This work illustrates the state of the art on archaeoseismology of the ancient Roman city of Baelo
Claudia (Tarifa, Cádiz). This ancient Roman site was affected by two earthquakes in the years AD 40-
60 and AD 260-290 which promoted important urban and architectural changes and eventually the
destruction and further abandonment of the city in AD 365-390. Earthquake Archaeoseismological
Effects (EAEs) are catalogued, described and mapped in the entire monumental sector of the city
mainly witnessing the last earthquake which occurred in AD 260-290. Mapping of oriented EAEs
illustrate damage distribution all over the lower sector of the city, as well as the occurrence of suspect
coseismic landslide and tsunami events. The structural analyses of oriented EAEs throughout the
entire mapped sector suggests that the intervening ground motion was preferentially oriented in a SW
to NE direction. In fact, several N-S normal faults have been identified around the Bolonia Bay area
and some of them continue offshore SSW of Baelo Claudia. This faults with clear Quaternary activity
can be considered as the more probable seismic sources for the events affecting the ancient Roman site.

Forthcoming April 2017

http://upers.kuleuven.be/en/book/9789462701052

Chapters by:
Simon Jusseret (The University of Texas at Austin, Université catholique de Louvain)
Manuel Sintubin (KU Leuven)
Jan Driessen (Université catholique de Louvain)
Susan E. Hough (U.S. Geological Survey)
James P. McCalpin (GEO-HAZ Consulting Inc.)
Christoph Grützner (RWTH Aachen University, University of Cambridge)
Thomas Wiatr (RWTH Aachen University, German Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy)
Charalampos Fassoulas (Natural History Museum of Crete, University of Crete)
Gerassimos A. Papadopoulos (National Observatory of Athens)
Jack Mason (RWTH Aachen University)
Klaus Reicherter (RWTH Aachen University)
Clairy Palyvou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
Eleftheria Tsakanika (National Technical University of Athens)
Jeffrey S. Soles (University of North Carolina – Greensboro)
Floyd W. McCoy (University of Hawaii – Windward)
Rhonda Suka (Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii)
Colin F. Macdonald (The British School at Athens)
Tim Cunningham (Université catholique de Louvain)

Although the Italian seismic compilations are among the best and back-in time extended catalogues of the world, with earthquakes on record even before the Common Era (e.g., 461 BC in Rome), we have surely lost the memory of dozen strong events of the historical period, mostly in the first millennium AD. In the lack of written sources, the only way to infer the occurrence of an ancient earthquake in a settlement is to gather as much evidence as possible from archaeological excavations. This happens usually by investigating the existence of collapses/ restorations/ reconstructions of buildings, the general re-organization of the urban texture or, even, the abandonment of the settlement. Exceptionally, this goal is achieved thanks to the discovery of epigraphs mentioning more or less explicitly the effects of the earthquake.
Here we present the case of Buccino, the former Roman municipium of Volcei, a settlement located since the Iron Age close to the Apennine divide, between Campania and Basilicata regions (Fig. 1). This sector of the chain is dominated by active NE-SW extension, mainly accommodated by NW-SE normal faults which sourced some among the strongest earthquakes of the Apennines. Indeed, Buccino was heavily damaged (8 MCS degree) by the 1980 Irpinia earthquake (Mw 6.9), with the thirty-year reconstruction activities providing an amazing
opportunity to rediscover the buried remains of the Roman town. As the seismic history of Buccino was known to be quite destructive, at least relatively to the past six centuries [e.g., earthquakes in 1466, 1561 and 1857; Is 8-10 MCS: Galli et al. (2006), Castelli et al. (2008), Galli and Peronace (2014)] the recognition of widespread, seismically induced damage to the ancient structures was not an unexpected discovery, allowing the extension of our information well behind the memory of the written Modern sources.

In 2009, the 5th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities conducted a rescue excavation on a plot owned by P. Kalapothakis in the village Karavostasi of the municipality of Oitylon in Laconia, which is the harbour of both the modern and the ancient settlement of Oitylon. The excavation brought to light extensive building remains dating from the 1st c. to the 6th c. AD. Among the particularly rich finds, a hoard of 457 bronze coins was found in the Room XIV under a thick destruction layer, which showed widespread disturbance. The hoard contains issues of Constantius II and Julian. The latest of those are of Julian II as Augustus dated to the year 363. The coins were produced in several mints of the Eastern Roman Empire (Constantinople, Heraclea, Cyzicus, Nicomedia, Sirmium, Thessalonica, Antioch, Alexandria). This is the only known hoard from the region of Laconia formed and concealed in the 4th c. AD. The hoard offers valuable evidence, significantly contributing to the study and understanding of the political and economic history of Oitylon in the late Antiquity. The causes that led to the sudden destruction of the Room XIV could be linked to the tidal wave resulted from the earthquake of July 21st 365 AD, with its epicenter in southwest of western Crete. The observed elevation of western Crete and Antikythera to nine meters up as well as a devastating tidal wave that swept eastern Mediterranean should be assigned to this gigantic seismic event and its sequence.

Berberian, M., and Yeats, R.S., 2016. Tehran: An Earthquake Time Bomb. In Tectonic Evolution, Collision, and Seismicity of Southwest Asia: In Honor of Manuel Berberian’s Forty-Five Years of Research Contributions; Sorkhabi, R., ed. Geological Society of America Special Paper v. 525, DOI: 10.1130/2016.2525(04)
http://specialpapers.gsapubs.org/cgi/content/abstract/2016.2525_04v1

Abstract
The megacity of Tehran, the political, economic, and military center of Iran, is exposed to a risk of large-magnitude earthquakes originating on several adjacent and inner-city active faults. The city lies at the southern foot of the central Alborz Mountains, which frame the South Caspian Basin and have been the source of damaging historical left-lateral strike-slip and reverse-fault earthquakes. The most recent destructive earthquake in Alborz was the Rudbār left-slip earthquake of Mw 7.3 on 20 June 1990 northwest of Tehran, taking more than 40,000 lives and destroying three cities. This earthquake was in a seismic gap, and its source fault did not show clear geomorphic signs of being active prior to the earthquake. East of Tehran, the 22 December 856 Komesh (Dāmghān) earthquake had a magnitude previously estimated at Ms 7.9, with estimated losses of 40,000–200,000 lives. Our reevaluation of historical, archaeological, and structural evidence reduces estimates of both magnitude and losses, similar to the 1990 Rudbār earthquake. The latest earthquake to affect the present Tehran metropolitan area was the Lavāsānāt earthquake on the central section of the Moshā fault, on 27 March 1830, with its epicenter located ~30 km northeast of the city, which had a magnitude of Mw ~7.0–7.4. Prior to this event, the Ruyān earthquake north of Tehran struck the same section of the fault on 23 February 958, with a magnitude previously estimated as Ms 7.7, although our reevaluation reduces the magnitude to around Mw ≥7.0 (7.0–7.4). Both the 958 and 1830 earthquakes along the central segment of the Moshā fault, with an interval of 872 yr, might have loaded the North Tehran fault system near the cities of Tehran and Karaj, as well as the faults underneath the metropolitan area. The North Tehran fault system west of Tehran might have sustained an earthquake of Mw ~7.0 in May 1177. The earthquake histories of the Niāvarān, Darakeh, Farahzād, and Kan left-lateral strike-slip faults (part of the North Tehran fault system at the mountain front north of the city), the inner-city Mahmudieh and Dāvudieh south-dipping reverse faults, the central-eastern section of the North Tehran fault system (now within the metropolitan area) as well as blind thrusts under the city are unknown. Except for the 1830 distant earthquake, no medium- to large-magnitude earthquake (Mw 6.5–7.5) has occurred within the Tehran metropolitan area during the past >839 yr along the faults beneath the metropolitan area or in the immediate vicinity. This may indicate a 839-yr-long period of strain accumulation within a long interseismic period between large-magnitude earthquakes in Tehran.
With the active-fault hazard to the rapidly growing population along several faults, it is necessary for the government to: (1) conduct extensive paleoseismic trenching to identify the most hazardous of Tehran's faults, previous rupture areas, average coseismic slip rates, earthquake magnitudes, and average recurrence periods of earthquakes from at least eight fault systems within the metropolitan area; (2) deal with extensive corruption of the construction and building-inspection industries; and (3) enforce the 1969, 1988, and 1999 Iranian Code for Seismic Resistant Design of Buildings. As with the 12 January 2010, Mw 7.0 Haiti earthquake, losses from the next Tehran earthquake of Mw ≥7.0 could exceed 100,000 people. It is necessary to prepare and implement an earthquake management master plan as a disaster prevention tool, enforce the building code with transparency, and retrofit public structures and infrastructure in order to mitigate earthquake risk in Tehran and protect the lives of ~15 million people (roughly 20% of the country's population) living in the Tehran and Alborz (Karaj city) Provinces.

http://specialpapers.gsapubs.org/cgi/content/abstract/2016.2525_04v1

http://specialpapers.gsapubs.org/cgi/content/abstract/2016.2525_05v1
The Geological Society of America
Special Paper 525
Archaeological and architectural evidence of historical seismic
activity along the Zāgros Main Recent fault at Borujerd
(western Iranian Plateau); the 1316 C.E. earthquake
Manuel Berberian*
Fellow, School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology, Department of Science,
Ocean County College, Toms River, New Jersey 08754-2001, USA, and
Onduni Grung Scientifi c Enterprise, 1224 Fox Hollow Drive, Toms River, New Jersey 08755-2179, USA
Mohammad Moqaddas
Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, Borujerd Offi ce,
Helāl Ahmar Alley, Safā Avenue, Borujerd 69135, Iran
Ahmad Kabiri*
Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, Āzādi Avenue, Tehran, Iran
ABSTRACT
We present the fi rst critical examination of the >1300 yr history of the Borujerd
old congregational mosque by means of scrutinizing ancient historical chronicles, archaeology, architecture, historical and modern seismicity, geology, and regional active faults. Our study resulted in recognition of at least four major phases of destruction, rebuilding, and renovations of the megastructure located 4 km to the northeast of the Zāgros Main Recent fault in western Iran. The grand structure shows significant paleo-architectural and archaeological evidence of destruction and damage. Although some damage events, recorded in seven phases since the seventh century C.E., could have been due to the poor construction of early periods and their decay, there is strong evidence of at least one extensive, simultaneous, and abrupt destruction and damage pattern of mosque III (ca. post–1090/pre–1139 C.E.) in the early fourteenth century. We suggest that the poorly known 1316 C.E. strong earthquake (which destroyed more than 20 villages in the general area, with erroneous epicentral
location in the historical seismic catalogues) was possibly responsible for the simultaneous sudden collapse of the Borujerd congregational mosque lofty dome chamber and its tall free-standing minaret; we infer that this earthquake occurred with intensity >VIII+ (modifi ed Mercalli intensity scale) conceivably along a seismic gap zone of the Zāgros Main Recent fault. No pre–1316 C.E. monument exists in the epicentral region, and no strong earthquake has occurred along that segment of the Zāgros Main Recent fault for the last seven centuries. Retrospectively, apparent indigenous paleoarchitectural renovations were utilized during construction of the new congregational mosque (mosque IV: ca. post–1405/pre–1447 C.E.) to enhance the coherency and elasticity of the rigid brick structure to withstand future earthquake shear stress. The hazard-reducing efforts included: (1) retrofitting the surviving load-bearing structural
elements; (2) avoiding grandeur and majesty and implementing simplicity by
reducing the size, height, and shape of the dome chamber; (3) avoiding free- standing minarets; (4) minimizing the size and reducing the light/ventilation openings; and (5) utilizing several levels of timber bracings to neutralize earthquake strong ground motion. Our research reveals that the return period of large- magnitude earthquakes along the two major segments of the fault is in the range of 1000 and 2000 yr, thus making historical earthquakes unrecognizable through routine historical research. It also shows how the use of archaeoseismology and paleo-architectural investigations on deformed monuments may improve our knowledge of long-term seismicity and
seismic hazards of a region. This kind of study permits us to hypothesize the occurrence of strong earthquakes in an area for which historical seismicity does not show significant earthquakes. Finally, based on the described historic seismic damage and destruction, the regional national monuments should be properly retrofi tted to withstand future earthquake hazards.

*E-mails: mberberian@ocean.edu and manuel.berberian@gmail.com (corresponding e-mail); yas_kabir@yahoo.com.

Berberian, M., Moqaddas, M., and Kabiri, A., 2016, Archaeological and architectural evidence of historical seismic activity along the Zāgros Main Recent fault at Borujerd (western Iranian Plateau); the 1316 C.E. earthquake, in Sorkhabi, R., ed., Tectonic Evolution, Collision, and Seismicity of Southwest Asia: In Honor of Manuel Berberian’s Forty-Five Years of Research Contributions: Geological Society of America Special Paper 525, p. 1–42, doi:10.1130/2016.2525(05). © 2016

The Geological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permission to copy, contact editing@geosociety.org.

Earthquakes of cataclysmic proportions feature with notorious frequency in both scholarly and popular accounts of the late antique decline and fall of cities in the eastern Mediterranean, not least because of their widespread occurrence in the contemporary textual sources, as well as the region's more recent history of seismic disasters. 1 The powerful image of earthquakes toppling temples and monuments has indeed proven to have a remarkably strong and enduring influence on scholars in their attempts to explain the processes of ruination and transformation that affected Classical cityscapes during Late Antiquity, even if texts and archaeological finds rarely match up in a straightforward fashion.