Abstract
The Dead Sea Fault and its junction with the southern segment of the East Anatolian fault zone, despite their high tectonic activity have been relatively quiescent in the last two centuries. Historical evidence, however, shows that in the 12th century these faults ruptured producing the large earthquakes of 1114, 1138, 1157 and 1170. This paroxysm occurred during one of the best-documented periods for which we have both Occidental and Arab chronicles, and shows that the activity of the 20th century, which is low, is definitely not a reliable guide to the activity over a longer period. The article is written for this Workshop Proceedings with the archaeoseismologist, and in particular with the seismophile historian in mind. It aims primarily at putting on record what is known about the seismicity of the region in the 12th century, describe the problems associated with the interpretation of macroseismic data, their limitations and misuse, and assess their completeness, rather than answer in detail questions regarding the tectonics and seismic hazard of the region, which will be dealt with elsewhere on a regional basis.
Highlights
The purpose of this article is to present the retrieval and uniform processing of information for the study of the 12th century seismicity of the region, which is defined by 33° to 38°N and 35° to 39°E, and includes Southeastern Turkey, Syria and Lebanon
The assessment of an historical earthquake requires the documentary information to be reviewed with reference to the environmental conditions and historical factors that have influenced the reporting of the event
From fig. 1 we notice that the seismic activity in the 12th century occurred in a remarkable series of earthquakes that moved successively from north to south along the East Anatolian and Dead Sea fault systems
Summary
The purpose of this article is to present the retrieval and uniform processing of information for the study of the 12th century seismicity of the region, which is defined by 33° to 38°N and 35° to 39°E, and includes Southeastern Turkey, Syria and Lebanon. This information may be used for the assessment of the location, and size of 12th century earthquakes and their association with regional tectonics. In evaluating the evidence for individual earthquakes and the completeness of information as a whole, attention must be given to exaggeration, the role of population distribution, communications and availability of historical documents.
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