Geological Evidence
Recent geological studies view the AD 365 Crete earthquake in connection with a clustering of major seismic activity in the eastern Mediterranean between the 4th century and the 6th century AD which may have reflected a reactivation of all major plate boundaries in the region. The earthquake is thought to be responsible for an uplift of 9 m of the island of Crete, which is estimated to correspond to a seismic moment of ~10^29 dyne cm. An earthquake of such a size exceeds all modern ones known to have affected the region. However, a recent reassessment of radiocarbon data indicates that the uplift most probably took place at a later date.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge recently carbon dated corals on the coast of Crete which were lifted 10 metres and clear of the water in one massive push. This indicates that the tsunami of AD 365 was generated by an earthquake in a steep fault in the Hellenic Trench near Crete. The scientists estimate that such a large uplift is only likely to occur once in 5,000 years; however, the other segments of the fault could slip on a similar scale—and could happen every 800 years or so. It is unsure whether "one of the contiguous patches might slip in the future."
Read more about this topic: 365 Crete Earthquake
Famous quotes containing the words geological and/or evidence:
“The crystal sphere of thought is as concentrical as the geological structure of the globe. As our soils and rocks lie in strata, concentric strata, so do all men’s thinkings run laterally, never vertically.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I don’t know what it is about fecundity that so appalls. I suppose it is the teeming evidence that birth and growth, which we value, are ubiquitous and blind, that life itself is so astonishingly cheap, that nature is as careless as it is bountiful, and that with extravagance goes a crushing waste that will one day include our own cheap lives.”
—Annie Dillard (b. 1945)