Significant earthquakes of 1169

February 4, 1169 Earthquake: Siracusa (Syracuse), Calabria, Sicily, Italy

February 4, 1169 · 16,000 deaths

An earthquake struck Siracusa (Syracuse), Calabria, Sicily, Italy on February 4, 1169. It killed 16,000 people.

Map

Where it struck, with the other significant earthquakes within 200 km. Circles are sized and colored by magnitude; select one for its page.

The earthquake

Date
February 4, 1169
Place
Siracusa (Syracuse), Calabria, Sicily, Italy
Intensity
XI, extreme shaking, on the Modified Mercalli scale
Epicenter
37.300° N, 15.030° E
Country
Italy
Region
Southern Europe

The toll

Deaths
16,000
Damage
Severe (about $5 to $25 million)
Houses destroyed
Many (101 to 1,000)

Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.

What the record says

NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.

1169 (possibly 1135,1157,1183,1186), February 4. 37o30'N, 1520'E, I = XI, tsunami intensity = 4 - 5. Calabrian Arc, Strait of Messina. A destructive earthquake occurred on the Island of Sicily and in Calabria. Catania and Lentini were destroyed. Cathedrals crashed down in Catania and Syracuse. 15,000 citizens were lost under the wreckage of buildings. Cosenza was partly destroyed. In Messina, the sea first receded from the coast, then, some time later, overflowed the coast line, gushed out onto dry land, surged up to the walls and penetrated into the town through the gate. (reference #2130)

February 4, 1169, Sicily and part of Calabria. Catania and other towns ruined, and 15,000 people killed. Others give the dates 1170, 1173, 1175, and even 1183. Doglioni reports it in 1166, and adds that it was felt in Greece. (reference #521)

February 4, 1169. Italy, Catania; Syracuse, throughout Sicily and (Calabria), intensity III which corresponds to an earthquake which destroyed towns and devastated districts. (reference #1055)

116, February 4. Lentini, 37o17'N, 15o00'E, Intensity XI. (reference #1075)

1169, February 4. Eastern coast of Sicily, Catania and Messina. Latitude 37.3 N, 15.2 E, intensity XI. 15000 deaths. Tsunami reported. (reference #3470)

Different Reports of Fatalities

FatalitiesReference #15,00052112,000105115,000213016,0001093

Sources NCEI cites

The publications NCEI lists for this record. The numbers match the “reference #” notes in its account above.

  1. #1051 Munchener Ruckversicherungs-Gesellschaft (1998). World Map of Natural Hazards, Munich Federal Republic of Germany
  2. #2130 Soloviev, Sergey L., Olga N. Solovieva, Chan N. Go, Khen S. Kim, and Nikolay A. Shchetnikov (2000). Tsunamis in the Mediterranean Sea 2000 B.C.-2000 A.D., Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research, Volume 13, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Netherlands, 237 p.
  3. #521 Mallet, Robert (1853). Catalogue of Recorded Earthquakes from 1606 B.C. to A.D. 1850, Part I, 1606 B.C. to 1755 A.D. Report of the 22nd Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held at Hull, Sept., 1853, John Murray, London, p. 1-176.
  4. #1055 Milne, John (1911). Catalogue of Destructive Earthquakes [7 to 1899 A.D.], Report of the 81st Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Portsmouth, London, United Kingdom, p. 649-740.
  5. #1093 Montandon, Frederic (1953). Les Tremblements de Terre Destructeurs en Europe, a L'Union Internationale de Secours, Geneva, Switzerland, 195 p.
  6. #1075 Giorgetti, F. and E. Iaccarino (1971). Italian Earthquake Catalogue from the Beginning of the Christian Age up to 1968, Osservatorio Geofisico Sperimentale, Trieste, Italy.
  7. #3470 Caputo, Michele and Gianfranco Faita (1984). Promo catalogo dei maremoti delle coste Italiane. Academia Nazionale dei Lincei, Roma. Serie VIII, Volume XVII, 356 p. [Catalog of tsunamis along the coast of Italy from 49 A.D. through 1954.]

Other significant earthquakes nearby

Within 200 km, the deadliest first.

More

Significant earthquakes of 1169The 1100sRecent earthquakes near hereThis day in weather history

Sources

Significant earthquakes from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-10-01. NCEI earthquake 421.