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Ancient and medieval earthquakes

28 articles

1033 Ramla earthquake

The 1033 Ramla earthquake struck Palestine before sunset on 5 December 1033, heavily damaging Ramla and other cities and generating a tsunami on the Mediterranean coast.

1038 Dingxiang earthquake

The 1038 Dingxiang earthquake was a magnitude 7.25 earthquake with maximum intensity X that struck near Dingxiang, Shanxi, China, on January 15, 1038, killing an estimated 23,000 to 32,300 people.

1042 Tabriz earthquake

The 1042 Tabriz earthquake was a destructive earthquake that struck Tabriz in northwestern Iran, leveling much of the city and killing between 40,000 and 50,000 people.

115 Antioch earthquake

The 115 Antioch earthquake struck Antioch-on-the-Orontes, modern Antakya in Turkey, on 13 December 115 CE, nearly killing Emperor Trajan and destroying much of the city during his war against Parthia.

1157 Aleppo earthquake

The 1157 Aleppo earthquake was a major earthquake that struck northern Syria on 12 August 1157, part of a damaging sequence between Homs and Aleppo.

1169 Syracuse earthquake

The 1169 Syracuse earthquake struck eastern Sicily at dawn on 4 February 1169, destroying Catania, where about 15,000 of 23,000 inhabitants died, and generating a tsunami along the Ionian coast.

1202 Syria earthquake

The 1202 Syria earthquake struck the eastern Mediterranean in May 1202 with an estimated magnitude of 7.5 to 7.8, severely damaging the Crusader cities of Acre and Tyre and causing tens of thousands of deaths.

1290 Ningcheng earthquake

The 1290 Ningcheng earthquake, called the Wuping Road earthquake, was a large earthquake near today's Ningcheng, Inner Mongolia, on 4 October 1290 that killed 7,220 people during the Yuan dynasty.

1293 Kamakura earthquake

The 1293 Kamakura earthquake struck Kamakura, seat of the Kamakura shogunate, on 27 May 1293, destroying temples and houses and killing, by higher counts, over 20,000 people.

1414 Sansepolcro earthquake

The 1414 Sansepolcro earthquake was a shock recorded on 7 August 1414 at Sansepolcro in the Upper Tiber valley of Tuscany, listed in Postpischl's 1985 Italian catalog.

1456 Avellino earthquake

The 1456 Avellino earthquake was a destructive seismic sequence of December 1456 that struck central and southern Italy, killing an estimated 30,000 to 70,000 people.

1495 Kamakura earthquake

The 1495 Kamakura earthquake (Meio earthquake, 明応地震) struck Kamakura, Japan, in 1495, followed by a tsunami that flooded the town and reportedly drowned more than 200 people.

367 Iznik earthquake

The 367 Iznik earthquake was a late-antique earthquake recorded by contemporary chronicles, which say it destroyed Nicaea, modern İznik, Turkey, on 11 October 367 or 368.

525 Antakya (Antioch) earthquake

The 525 Antakya (Antioch) earthquake, usually dated 29 May 526, destroyed most of Antioch, capital of Roman Syria, during the reign of Emperor Justin I, with reported deaths of 250,000 to 300,000.

533 Aleppo earthquake

The 533 Aleppo earthquake, dated 533 AH by Arabic chroniclers, is the destructive October 1138 earthquake that shattered Aleppo's walls and citadel in northern Syria, one of medieval Syria's most damaging.

587 Antakya (Antioch) earthquake

The 587 Antakya (Antioch) earthquake destroyed most of the Byzantine city of Antioch (modern Antakya, Turkey) on a night in late October, killing about 60,000 people.

744 Shimabara earthquake

The 744 Shimabara earthquake, also known as the 744 Higo earthquake, struck Higo Province on Japan's Kyushu island, sweeping away more than 1,520 people and causing over 280 landslides.

838 Uzbekistan earthquake

The 838 Uzbekistan earthquake was a destructive earthquake that struck the Fergana region of Central Asia in 838 AD, recorded with about 15,000 deaths and extreme damage, the earliest listed for the Fergana depression.

844 Antakya earthquake

The 844 Antakya earthquake was a historical Abbasid-era earthquake, dated to 18 September 844 by modern catalogs, that Arabic chronicles say destroyed Antioch and shook Damascus, al-Jazirah, and Mosul.

845 Al-Mawsil earthquake

The 845 Al-Mawsil earthquake was a destructive earthquake reported at Mosul (Al-Mawsil) in northern Iraq in the mid-ninth century, claimed in Arabic chronicles to have killed 50,000 people.

850 Rey (Ray) earthquake

The 850 Rey (Ray) earthquake was a destructive historical earthquake that struck the city of Rey, near present-day Tehran, Iran, in 850, with a recorded death toll of 45,000.

856 Damghan earthquake

The 856 Damghan earthquake, also called the Qumis earthquake, struck northeastern Iran on 22 December 856 with an estimated magnitude of 7.9, killing more than 200,000 people.

856 Tunisia earthquake

The 856 Tunisia earthquake struck Tunis in December 856, destroying many houses and reportedly killing 45,000 inhabitants, and remains the largest reported historical earthquake of the Tunis area.

871 Saimareh earthquake

The 871 Saimareh earthquake was a destructive earthquake in the Zagros region of western Iran, cataloged at magnitude 6.8 with about 20,000 deaths, possibly triggering the Simareh landslide.

885 Egypt earthquake

The 885 Egypt earthquake was a destructive shock that struck Lower Egypt in November 885, reportedly killing about 1,000 people and damaging the mosque of 'Amr at Fustat.

887 Niigata earthquake

The 887 Niigata earthquake, known in Japanese as the Ninna earthquake, was a great Nankai Trough earthquake off southwest Japan in August 887, with an estimated magnitude of 8.3.

893 Armenia earthquake

The 893 Armenia earthquake struck Dvin, then a capital and religious center of medieval Armenia, on the evening of 28 December 893, with death tolls estimated from 20,000 to 150,000.

Jōgan earthquake

The Jōgan earthquake (貞観地震) was a great earthquake and tsunami that struck Mutsu Province in northern Japan on 9 July 869, drowning roughly 1,000 people on the Sendai plain.