March 28, 1846 Earthquake: Crete, Greece

AD 1846 Mar 28, Hellenic Arc. This was an earthquake with an offshore epicentre, probably in the Hellenic Arc. It was felt at 18 h as two consecutive shocks and was perceptible over a large area, of radius 650 km, in the Eastern Mediterranean. In Crete the earthquake caused widespread, but slight, damage and no one was killed. At Chania the movements of the ground lasted for 50 seconds. They caused water to slosh out of garden ponds and trees to sway. The shocks damaged about 20 houses and a minaret, and fissured the walls of the town. In Candia (Heraklion) more than 100 houses were damaged and the walls of the fort cracked. In Rethymnon houses suffered some slight damage. The shock was felt in Kalamata, but details are lacking. It is said that in Rhodes the earthquake lasted almost 2 minutes without interruption and caused some slight damage to a tower and to tall buildings. The shock was felt in Asia Minor at Elmali, Makri (Fetiye), Mu˘ gla, Smyrna, Mytilene, and C¸ anakkale, where all it caused was alarm and in some places minor damage. Parts of Lower Egypt, particularly Cairo and Alexandria, were also shaken. In Cairo the ground motions lasted for 3 minutes and caused some alarm, but no damage. Six minutes later there was another shock. At Alexandria the duration of shaking was estimated at 50 seconds.

The shock was also felt at sea (Rudolph 1887, 325), but there is no information that it was associated with a seismic wave or that the main shock was followed by aftershocks

(reference #9116)