634 Earthquake: Jerusalem, Palestine, Israel

634, Palestine. An earthquake in Palestine, which may have been followed by aftershocks, caused some damage in Jerusalem. Michael’s statement about the destruction of the church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem and damage on the Golgotha is spurious. This church was ruined by the Persians in AD 614, restored in AD 629 and had been left untouched when, in AD 637, Omar Caliph took possession of Jerusalem (Le Strange 1890, 202) […] no strong case may be made for damage in Scythopolis (Beth-Shan). Three houses, which had collapsed and then burned, contained coins up to the time of the emperor Phocas (AD 602–610), and a ruined monastery near the city yielded coins from the reign of Heraclius (AD 610–641) (Russell 1985, 56f), but this is not sufficient evidence to associate these finds with the earthquake in Jerusalem. The damage could be the result of sacking by Arab marauders. More debatable is the evidence from Gerasa (Russell 1985, 42), and Pella (damage to a church), which could have been due to this event or the AD 659 earthquake (Russell 1985, 50). Stratigraphic analysis of the site of Caesarea Maritima shows a destruction level dating to c. AD 630 – it is not certain whether this can attributed to an earthquake or to a Persian invasion. (reference #9116)

The documentary sources examined earlier leave no doubt that the Palestine earthquake happened within the year AD 634. The sources imply also that the months March and August should be considered as the terminus post quem and terminus ante quem, respectively, for the occurrence of that earthquake […] Based on the very good concurrence between the calculations of the eclipse of AD 1 July 634 and the description of the same event by Nektarios as well as the agreement between the Chinese historical records and the Epitome, it is apparent that a far more likely date for the earthquake is between July and September of AD 634. We tentatively assigned macroseismic intensity 8 +/- 1 (MMI) and epicenter on the Dead Sea Fault Zone northeast from Jerusalem.(reference #13464)