The historical earthquakes of Syria: an analysis of large and moderate earthquakes from 1365 B.C. to 1900 A.D.

The historical sources of large and moderate earthquakes, earthquake catalogues and monographs exist in many depositories in Syria and European centers. They have been studied, and the detailed review and analysis resulted in a catalogue with 181 historical earthquakes from 1365 B.C. to 1900 A.D. Numerous original documents in Arabic, Latin, Byzantine and Assyrian allowed us to identify seismic events not mentioned in previous works. In particular, detailed descriptions of damage in Arabic sources provided quantitative information necessary to re-evaluate past seismic events. These large earthquakes (I0>VIII) caused considerable damage in cities, towns and villages located along the northern section of the Dead Sea fault system. Fewer large events also occurred along the Palmyra, Ar-Rassafeh and the Euphrates faults in Eastern Syria. Descriptions in original sources document foreshocks, aftershocks, fault ruptures, liquefaction, landslides, tsunamis, fires and other damages. We present here an updated historical catalogue of 181 historical earthquakes distributed in 4 categories regarding the originality and other considerations, we also present a table of the parametric catalogue of 36 historical earthquakes (table I) and a table of the complete list of all historical earthquakes (181 events) with the affected locality names and parameters of information quality and completeness (table II) using methods already applied in other regions (Italy, England, Iran, Russia) with a completeness test using EMS-92. This test suggests that the catalogue is relatively complete for magnitudes >6.5. This catalogue may contribute to a comprehensive and unified parametric earthquake catalogue and to a realistic assessment of seismic hazards in Syria and surrounding regions

The historical earthquakes of Syria: an analysis of large and moderate earthquakes from 1365 B.C. to 1900 A.D.

The historical sources of large and moderate earthquakes, earthquake catalogues and monographs exist in many
 depositories in Syria and European centers. They have been studied, and the detailed review and analysis resulted
 in a catalogue with 181 historical earthquakes from 1365 B.C. to 1900 A.D. Numerous original documents
 in Arabic, Latin, Byzantine and Assyrian allowed us to identify seismic events not mentioned in previous works.
 In particular, detailed descriptions of damage in Arabic sources provided quantitative information necessary to
 re-evaluate past seismic events. These large earthquakes (I0>VIII) caused considerable damage in cities, towns
 and villages located along the northern section of the Dead Sea fault system. Fewer large events also occurred
 along the Palmyra, Ar-Rassafeh and the Euphrates faults in Eastern Syria. Descriptions in original sources document
 foreshocks, aftershocks, fault ruptures, liquefaction, landslides, tsunamis, fires and other damages. We
 present here an updated historical catalogue of 181 historical earthquakes distributed in 4 categories regarding
 the originality and other considerations, we also present a table of the parametric catalogue of 36 historical earthquakes
 (table I) and a table of the complete list of all historical earthquakes (181 events) with the affected locality
 names and parameters of information quality and completeness (table II) using methods already applied
 in other regions (Italy, England, Iran, Russia) with a completeness test using EMS-92. This test suggests that the
 catalogue is relatively complete for magnitudes >6.5. This catalogue may contribute to a comprehensive and
 unified parametric earthquake catalogue and to a realistic assessment of seismic hazards in Syria and surrounding
 regions

Holocene faulting and earthquake recurrence along the Serghaya branch of the Dead Sea fault system in Syria and Lebanon

An edited version of this paper was published in Geophysical Journal International by Blackwell Publishing. Blackwell Publishing retains the copyright. Copyright 2003, Blackwell Publishing. See also: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1365-246X.2003.01933.x; http://atlas.geo.cornell.edu/deadsea/publications/Gomez2003_GJI.htmThe Serghaya fault, located approximately along the Syrian-Lebanese border, is a prominent structure within the 200 km restraining bend in the left-lateral Dead Sea fault system. This study documents palaeoseismic and geomorphic expressions of Holocene movements on the Serghaya fault based on trench excavations and radiocarbon dates. Trenches were excavated across and parallel to a 4.5 m fault scarp where Late Pleistocene sediments are faulted against Holocene alluvium and colluvium. Locally oblique slip on the Serghaya fault has produced a sequence of fault-derived colluvial wedges that distinguishes individual palaeoseismic events. In addition, the trench excavations also depict a sequence of buried and displaced channels. Our palaeoseismic study reveals evidence for five surface-rupturing events within the past ~6500 yr. The last event involved 2-2.5 m of primarily left-lateral displacement and may correspond to one of two historically documented earthquakes during the 18th century (in 1705 and 1759). The displaced channels provide an estimated slip rate of approximately 1.4 - 0.2 mm yr-1 during the Holocene. The chronological relationships between the colluvial wedges and faulted channels demonstrate an average left-lateral displacement of about 2 m per event, suggesting that such events correspond to earthquakes of M >~ 7 with a mean return time of about 1300 yr. These results demonstrate that the Serghaya fault may present a previously overlooked earthquake hazard for populations in the vicinity of the AntiLebanon Mountains, including the cities of Damascus and Beirut. In a regional context, the inferred slip rate along the Serghaya fault accounts for about 25 per cent of the total expected motion of Arabia relative to Africa along the Dead Sea fault system. The fact that the Serghaya fault accounts for only a fraction of the expected plate motion implies that the remaining strike-slip and shortening must be accommodated by other active fault branches within the large restraining bend of the Dead Sea fault system. These results contradict suggestions that the northern Dead Sea fault system in Lebanon and Syria is presently inactive as a result of an evolving regional stress field in the eastern Mediterranean region

Coseismic displacements along the Serghaya Fault: An active branch of the Dead Sea Fault System in Syria and Lebanon

This material has been published in The Journal of the Geological Society of London, Volume 158, the only definitive repository of the content that has been certified and accepted after peer review. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by The Geological Society of London. Copyright 2001, The Geological Society of London. See also: http://atlas.geo.cornell.edu/deadsea/publications/Gomez2001_JGS.htmExamination of the Serghaya fault, a branch of the Dead Sea Fault System in western Syria and eastern Lebanon, documents Late Quaternary and Recent left-lateral fault movements including the probable remnant of a historic coseismic surface rupture. Carbon-14 dating and the presence of fault-scarp free faces in soft, late Pleistocene lake deposits suggest coseismic slip during the past two or three centuries, possibly corresponding with one of the well-documented earthquakes of 1705 or 1759. With an estimated Holocene slip rate of 1-2 mm/yr, the Serghaya Fault accommodates a significant part of the active deformation along the Arabian-African plate boundary. These results suggest that multiple active fault branches are involved in the transfer of strain through the 'Lebanese' restraining bend

Evidence for 830 years of seismic quiescence from palaeoseismology, archaeoseismology, and historical seismicity along the Dead Sea fault in Syria

An edited version of this paper was published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters by Elsevier Science. Elsevier Science retains the copyright to this paper (Copyright 2003). See also: http:\\dx.doi.org\10.1016\S0012-821X(03)00144-4; http://atlas.geo.cornell.edu/deadsea/publications/Meghraoui2003_EPSL.htmThe long historical record of earthquakes, the physical effects on ancient building structures and the palaeoseismology provide a unique opportunity for an interdisciplinary tectonic analysis along a major plate boundary and a realistic evaluation of the seismic hazard assessment in the Middle East. We demonstrate with microtopographic surveys and trenching that the Dead Sea fault (DSF) offsets left-laterally by 13.690.2 m a repeatedly fractured ancient Roman aqueduct (older than AD 70 and younger than AD 30). Carbon-14 dating of faulted young alluvial deposits documents the occurrence of three large earthquakes in the past 2000 years between AD 100 and 750, between AD 700 and 1030 and between AD 990 and 1210. Our study provides the timing of late Holocene earthquakes and constrains the 6.990.1 mm/yr slip rate of the Dead Sea transform fault in northwestern Syria along the Missyaf segment. The antepenultimate and most recent faulting events may be correlated with the AD 115 and AD 1170 large earthquakes for which we estimate Mw =7.3^7.5. The 830 yr of seismic quiescence along the Missyaf fault segment implies that a large earthquake is overdue and may result in a major catastrophe to the population centres of Syria and Lebanon

Towards a microzonation of the Greater Beirut area: an instrumental approach combining earthquake and ambient vibration recordings

International audienceLebanon is situated on the 1000 km long Levant transform fault that separates the Arabic from the African tectonic plates. In Lebanon, the Levant fault splits up into a set of ramifications that had, in the past, generated major destructive earthquakes causing a lot of destruction and thousands of casualties. The most devastating one was the 551 A.D. offshore earthquake that destroyed Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. This paper presents a site effect study in Beirut, aimed at proposing a framework for future microzonation works in the city. It includes two complementary parts. A 6-month, temporary seismological experiment was first conducted to estimate the site response at 10 sites sampling the main geological units of Beirut on the basis of local and regional earthquake recordings. This spatially sparse information was then complemented by a large number (615) of microtremor measurements covering the Beirut municipality and part of its suburbs with a 400 m dense grid. The recordings were analysed with the standard site-to-reference and horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio methods for earthquake recordings, and the horizontal-to-vertical ratio for ambient noise recordings. Significant ground motion amplification effects (up to a factor of 8) are found in a few areas corresponding to recent deposits. The consistency between results from earthquake and microtremor recordings allows proposing a map of the resonance frequencies within the city and its suburbs, with frequencies ranging from 0.5 to 5 Hz for the deepest deposits, and 5–10 Hz for shallow areas. Finally, the results are discussed and a way to combine the results obtained from the temporary stations to the great number of recordings coming from the permanent Lebanese network is proposed

The social burden of resilience: A historical perspective

We examine the social burden associated with resilience to environmental shocks in pre-modern societies. We argue that analyses of state-level interventions to mitigate the consequences of catastrophic events tend to isolate these measures from their larger social contexts and thereby overlook the uneven distribution of their burden across different groups. We use three cases of pre-modern societies in the northeastern Mediterranea