The catastrophic landslide on the Black Sea coast which destroyed the Roman town of Bisonе (south of Kavarna town)

Abstract

In the second half of the Ist century BC seismogenic landslide/rockfall tore off the front part of the Chirakman Cape in the western part of the Kavarna Bay. The rich quarters of the Roman city of Bisone slid down into the sea. According to data from underwater archaeology artifacts and walls of the settlement are found up to 80 m inside the sea. The paper considers the tectonic conditions, the geological-geomorphological structure of the landslide, the paleogeography of the coastal shelf during the Holocene and the hydrogeological and engineering geological conditions in the area. A reconstruction of the coastline and sea-level position during the catastrophic landslide has been developed. Stability analyses have been performed too.