2013/02/15 by Alina Polonia, Enrico Bonatti, Angelo Camerlenghi +3 · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #earthquake and tectonic studies #Maritime and Coastal Archaeology #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/srep01285
openalex publication_date 2013/02/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Historian Ammianus Marcellinus documented the devastating effects of a tsunami hitting Alexandria, Egypt, on July 21, AD 365. "The solidity of the earth was made to shake … and the sea was driven away. The waters returning when least expected killed many thousands by drowning. Huge ships… perched on the roofs of houses… hurled miles from the shore….". Other settlements around the Mediterranean were hit at roughly the same time. This scenario is similar to that of the recent Sumatra and Tohoku tsunamis. Based on geophysical surveys and sediment cores from the Ionian Sea we show that the 20-25 m thick megaturbidite known in the literature as Homogenite/Augias was triggered not by the Santorini caldera collapse but by the 365 AD Cretan earthquake/tsunami. An older similar megaturbidite was deposited after 14.590 ± 80 yr BP, implying a large recurrence time of such extreme sedimentary events in the Mediterranean Sea.