Archaeoseismological investigation of the ancient Ayla site in the city of Aqaba,Jordan

Many tens of severe earthquake damage patterns were revealed at the ancient city of Ayla. The seismic deformation patterns are of various types, including systematic tilting of walls, systematic shifting and rotation of wall fragments and individual stones, arch deformations and joints crossing two or more stones. Features of later repair, supporting walls and secondary use of building stones suggest that the damage patterns can be explained by two historical devastating earthquakes: (I) revealed in the constructions built during the late Rashidun period (644–656 A.D.); (II) revealed in the structures restored and/or built during the Fatimid period (1050–1116 A.D.). The maximum observed intensity of both earthquakes at the studied site was not less than IX (EMS98 scale). The sources of the seismic events were probably the Dead Sea Transform and Wadi Araba Faults that cross the site obliquely. The last 1995 Nuweiba earthquake with maximum observed intensity VIII has also left its clear traces in the excavated ancient Ayla buildings. The severity of the destruction was significantly increased because of site effects.     

An archaeo-seismological study of the Nîmes Roman aqueduct,France: indirect evidence for an <Emphasis Type="Italic">M</Emphasis> > 6 seismic event?

This paper presents a synthesis of a multidisciplinary study carried out along the Nîmes Roman aqueduct, located in the southeast part of France. The study was motivated by archaeologists attempting to explain the partial destructions of only one aerial bridge of the aqueduct (Pont de la Lône). Given its close proximity to the Nîmes seismically active fault, a possible seismic origin for the destructions was invoked. Seismologists and structural engineers thus carried out a variety of field and numerical investigations to test the seismic hypothesis. Supporting field evidence was found first along the aerial bridge section of the aqueduct: broken stalactites, arch warping, cracks and destruction of the bridge just above a breast wall shortly after its construction. Secondly, the underground part of the canal was analysed: irregularity in the thickness of calcite deposits of the canal walls, presence of numerous cracks, horizontal shift of the otherwise linear structure of the canal and presence of calcite twins in the deposits, found only where the canal crosses the Nîmes fault system. Numerical modelling and experimental results show that (1) only the Pont de la Lône would have suffered serious damage under seismic solicitation (assuming an M6 earthquake at 10 km distance). The second aerial bridge, the three levels arches Pont du Gard, an historical monument still standing today, would have suffered less damage, due to its very different fundamental frequency of around 0.4 Hz, far from the amplified seismic near-field spectrum; (2) the numerical models also show that a fall of the canal wall would require a higher magnitude event (M > 6); (3) the presence of calcite twinning requires a differential static stress of 4 MPa or greater, which can only be achieved very close to the fault rupture of a M > 6 earthquake; (4) finally, local surface rupturing of such a fault would also corroborate the hypothesis that the observed offset of the canal may be partly seismically induced. Although other possible origins for each individual evidence may not be excluded, the observed spatiotemporal concentration of architectural/geological anomalies together with the numerical results allow us to support a possible co-seismic origin for these disorders, indirectly attesting to the potential seismic activity (M > 6) of the nearby Nîmes fault. Furthermore, following the conclusions of archaeological studies, the disorders occurred between 250 and 350 year AD, thus providing timing for this possible seismic event, an essential parameter in seismic hazard analysis. These results validate the archaeo-seismological approach as a tool that may help improve the knowledge of major infrequent earthquakes in areas of moderate seismic activity.     

Sāfitā castle and rockfalls in the ‘dead villages’ of coastal Syria – an archaeoseismological study

Sāfītā, a crusader fortification in Tartūs Governorate, coastal Syria, bears major damages of earthquake origin. The tower suffered heavy vibration, which produced fractures across the thick walls, widening the central portion of the building, and causing arch keystones to slide downwards. Apparently a ∼north–south strong motion was responsible for the damages. Further north, at Khirbat al-Qurshiyya, an abandoned village from Late Antiquity, a quarry abounds with fallen blocks. These display displacement predominantly in a northerly direction, suggesting a north–south strong motion. ‘Ayn-Qadīb, a small village in the Jabal Ansāriyya ranges, was damaged by a northward-directed rockfall. A contemporary letter testifies to the fact that Sāfītā donjon was heavily damaged by the AD 1202 earthquake. The Yammouneh Fault, which probably caused the damage, is only 50 km away further south.     

The 2nd century AD earthquake in central Italy: archaeoseismological data and seismotectonic implications

The 2nd century AD earthquake in central Italy is only known by an epigraph that mentions restorations to a damaged weighing-house at the ancient locality of Pagus Interpromium. The available seismic catalogues report this event with the conventional date of 101 AD, a magnitude M _aw of 6.3, and an epicentral location at the village of San Valentino in Abruzzo Citeriore, in the province of Pescara. In order to improve the knowledge of the damage pattern, we gathered all the archaeological data collected during modern excavations at sites located in the area, which were presumably struck by the earthquake. This information is mainly represented by (1) stratigraphic units due to the sudden collapse of buildings over still frequented floors; (2) stratigraphic units demonstrating restoration or re-building of edifices; (3) stratigraphic units formed as the result of the abandonment of sites or of their lack of frequentation for decades or centuries. Only stratigraphic evidence consistent with an earthquake occurrence during the 2nd century AD has been considered. The most recent archaeological material found in a collapsed unit is a coin of Antoninus Pius, dated at 147–148 AD. This may represent a post quem date very close to the occurrence of the earthquake. The gathered information, plus the stratigraphic data that excluded the earthquake occurrence at some sites, has allowed us to roughly delineate an area of possible damage, including the Sulmona Plain and surrounding areas. Comparisons between the possible 2nd century damage distribution and (i) the damage patterns of more recent historical events that have struck the investigated area, (ii) the distribution of virtual intensities obtained by simulating an earthquake having an epicenter in the Sulmona Plain and applying an intensity attenuation relationship and (iii) a shaking scenario obtained by modelling the activation of the major active fault of the Sulmona Plain area (the Mt. Morrone fault) have revealed consistency between the ancient earthquake and the activation of this fault. Since no other historical events can be attributed to this active fault, we conclude that the time that has elapsed since the last fault activation should be in the order of 1,850 years, i.e. a time span that is very close to the recurrence interval of Apennine seismogenic sources. Moreover, considering the fault length, the causative source may be responsible for earthquakes with M up to 6.6–6.7. The comparison between the presumed 2nd century damage and the shaking scenario suggests that the magnitude mentioned is consistent with the presumed effects of the ancient earthquake. Finally, considering that Sulmona (the most important town in the region investigated) is located in the middle of the Mt. Morrone fault hanging wall, we consider it as the probable epicentral area. Therefore, to summarise the information on the 2nd century AD earthquake, we can conclude that (i) it occurred shortly after 147–148 AD; (ii) a magnitude M _w 6.6–6.7 can be attributed to it and (iii) the probable macroseismic epicentral area was Sulmona.     

Recognition of earthquake-related damage in archaeological sites: Examples from the Dead Sea fault zone

Archaeological structures that exhibit seismogenic damage expand our knowledge of temporal and spatial distribution of earthquakes, afford independent examination of historical accounts, provide information on local earthquake intensities and enable the delineation of macroseismic zones. They also illustrate what might happen in future earthquakes. In order to recover this information, we should be able to distinguish earthquake damage from anthropogenic damage and from other natural processes of wear and tear. The present paper reviews several types of damage that can be attributed with high certainty to earthquakes and discusses associated caveats. In the rare cases, where faults intersect with archaeological sites, offset structures enable precise determination of sense and size of slip, and constrain its time. Among the characteristic off-fault damage types, I consider horizontal shifting of large building blocks, downward sliding of one or several blocks from masonry arches, collapse of heavy, stably-built walls, chipping of corners of building blocks, and aligned falling of walls and columns. Other damage features are less conclusive and require additional evidence, e.g., fractures that cut across several structures, leaning walls and columns, warps and bulges in walls. Circumstantial evidence for catastrophic earthquake-related destruction includes contemporaneous damage in many sites in the same area, absence of weapons or other anthropogenic damage, stratigraphic data on collapse of walls and ceilings onto floors and other living horizons and burial of valuable artifacts, as well as associated geological palaeoseismic phenomena such as liquefaction, land- and rock-slides, and fault ruptures. Additional support may be found in reliable historical accounts. Special care must be taken in order to avoid circular reasoning by maintaining the independence of data acquisition methods.     

Preliminary Analysis of Tectonic Deformation Phenomena in Some Archaeological Sites in Shandong Province

Earthquake archaeological research was conducted in recent years at four archaeological excavation sites in Shandong, focusing on the identification and analysis of the tectonic deformation phenomena. The non-tectonic deformation phenomena were distinguished at the site of the Shang Dynasty ruins at Daxinzhuang in the Jinan suburbs. In Longshan, sand vein-filled cracks were recognized in the cultural layers of the Chengziya site, Zhangqiu City. Sand veins on the trench wall and sand tubes at the trench bottom were found densely distributed at the Shang and Zhou Dynasty cultural layers, at Qinhuangtai site, Binzhou City. The tectonic and non-tectonic origin cracks were identified on the city wall of the Site of Capital of State Qi, Linzi City. In Rizhao city, parallel distributed sand vein fracture groups were found in the cultural layer of Longshan-Warring States-Han Dynasty at Yaowangcheng site. Typical conjugate shear fractures were identified on the city wall of the ancient city of the State of Xue, Tengzhou City. The above natural deformation phenomena are concentrated in the culture layers of the Spring and Autumn-Warring States-Han Dynasties and before, and characterized by seismic sand-soil liquefaction traces, which indicate that these regions might have been in the seismic active episodes in the corresponding periods. The above inference has been confirmed by microscopic data analysis.     

Estimating location and size of historical earthquake by combining archaeology and geology in Umm-El-Qanatir,Dead Sea Transform

We study the Byzantine-to-Ummayad (6th–8th century) archaeological site of Umm-El-Qanatir, located 10 km east of the Dead Sea Transform (DST) in northern Israel. The site was damaged by an earthquake-induced landslide, and in this work we use slope stability analysis to constrain the historical seismic acceleration that occurred along the northern segment of the DST. Umm-El-Qanatir archaeological site is located on a slope of a canyon and contains evidence for earthquake-related damage, including fallen columns and walls, horizontal shift of heavy masonry blocks, and complete burial of ceramic pots and farming tools beneath fallen ceilings. A water pool that collected spring water is displaced nearly one meter by the landslide. The artifacts from the village and the spring area indicate that people inhabited the site until the middle of the 8th century. We argue that the destruction, which forced the abandonment of Umm-El-Qanatir together with nearby settlements, was associated with the earthquake of January 18, 749 CE. In order to evaluate the ground acceleration related to the above earthquake, we back-analyze the stability of a failed slope, which cut and displaced the water-pool, using slope stability software (Slope/W). The results show that the slope is statically stable and that high values of horizontal seismic acceleration (>0.3 g) are required to induce slope failure. Subsequently, we use the Newmark displacement method to calculate the earthquake magnitude needed to cause the slope failure as a function of distance from the site. The results (attributed to the 749 CE earthquake) show that a M_W > 7.0 earthquake up to 25 km from the site could have induced the studied landslide.     

Characterization of building materials from the aqueduct of Antioch-on-the-Orontes (Turkey)

The Roman aqueduct of Antioch-on-the-Orontes (Turkey), a city located near the junction between the active Dead Sea fault and the East Anatolian fault, has been damaged several times due to historical earthquakes, as mentioned in ancient texts. The traces of repairs are studied in order to identify their potential seismic origin. The deformations of the structure were characterised thanks to a LIDAR scan. Several bricks were sampled on different parts of the city's aqueducts, on the original structure and on repaired parts. The bricks were characterized through a petrological approach. ¹⁴C and archaeomagnetism were tested on the bricks in order to constrain the age of their production. The synthesis of all the data showed a local origin for the bricks, and led to the identification of several manufacturing techniques and several types of production, thus, confirming the potentiality of this approach to date and characterise post-seismic repairs.     

Faulting and effects of earthquakes on Minoan archaeological sites in Crete (Greece)

Examination of damages affecting the buildings of the archaeological sites of Phaistos and Agia Triada (southern Crete) suggests that these Minoan settlements were probably destroyed by two major seismic events characterized by MKS intensities of IX–X and occurred at the end of the Protopalatial (1700 BC) and the Neopalatial (1450 BC) periods. Geological and morphological studies carried out in the neighbouring areas show the occurrence of E–W trending Quaternary normal fault segments (Spili and Agia Galini faults) that control the present topography and morphology, and exhibit steep young scarps mostly Holocene in age. These fault segments are related to a NW–SE extension direction, which is consistent with that indicated by the available focal mechanisms of the earthquakes occurring in this area in the last 50 years. Combining structural and seismic data we can infer that the Spili and Agia Galini fault segments could represent good candidates to be considered active faults generating large earthquakes (M6.5) that were responsible for the damages of Phaistos and Agia Triada. This hypothesis suggests that the Minoan palatial centres were destroyed by several large earthquakes related to ruptures along distinct fault segments rather than by a single catastrophic event that caused the abrupt destruction of the Minoan civilisation in the eastern Mediterranean.     

The use of distinct disciplines to investigate past earthquakes

The investigation of past earthquakes can be approached in many different ways with a large variety of methods and techniques. This is mainly due to the complexity of this natural phenomenon in both its genetic aspects and consequential ones. In the present note, we briefly analyse the peculiarities of Instrumental Seismology, Historical Seismology, Archaeoseismology and Earthquake Geology, but especially we emphasise the major differences among these four distinct approaches. In order to better define and clearly separate these disciplines, in terms of appropriate tools to be applied and possible outcomes to be expected, an alternative point of view is proposed based on the source of information and not on a chronological distribution as commonly accepted in the literature. Although multidisciplinarity is a common approach for investigating past earthquakes, each one of the discussed disciplines has its own peculiarities, advantages and limitations, and researchers should be aware of this.