August 15, 554 Earthquake: Kos, Greece

554, August 15. Aegean Sea, Island of Kos. A destructive earthquake occurred on the island and on the south-western shore of Asia Minor. It was felt up to Constantinople, Mesopotamia, Alexandria; considerable areas suffered great losses. Many houses, temples, city walls were destroyed; many people were killed. Destruction was reported from Palestine, Araby and other regions. Underground shocks lasted 40 days and nights (reference #2130).

554, July 11. Constantinople. (reference #521)

554, July 9. Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Antioch and other cities. (reference #1222)

551, Cos. An earthquake and a seismic sea wave, which caused great damage on the island of Cos. The town of Cos was almost completely destroyed, as was all but a small part of the island, and the death toll was heavy. Houses of unbaked brick or mud survived, but most houses, built of stone, were reduced to rubble and drinking water was also polluted by the sea wave. Agathias visited Cos, in the course of a voyage from Alexandria to Constantinople, shortly after the event, and was thus able to see the effects (although of course there may be some exaggeration). His chronology is so confused that the date of the event is uncertain. Agathias says ‘ at around that time ' just after narrating the earthquake of July 551, but in ii. 15 and ii. 16 he regresses four years in his time sequence. Modern authors amalgamate this earthquake with the event of AD 551 that destroyed the Phoenician coast, 800 km away from Cos (McCail 1967, 243). Agathias also visited the island in AD 558, on his return from Constantinople, but Guidoboni et al. (1994, 338-339) note that this visit was before the Constantinople earthquake of AD 557 and date the event between AD 554 and 558 on the assumption that Egypt was affected by an earthquake in AD 554 (Guidoboni 1989, 703). (reference #9116)

556, 36.80 N, 27.30 E, magnitude 7.0. This event occurred around the year 556 but the exact date remains uncertain. Some sources report the event in 554, others in 558. Earthquake coordinates after Papadopoulos et al. (2007).(reference #11164)

magnitude 7.0 (reference #2840)