April 8, 859 Earthquake: Antakya (Antioch), Turkey

Date

April 8, 859

Place

Antakya (Antioch), Turkey

Intensity

XI, extreme shaking, on the Modified Mercalli scale

Tsunami

None recorded

Epicenter

36.000° N, 36.000° E

Country

Turkey

Region

Middle East

Deaths

Many (about 101 to 1,000)

Damage

Severe (about $5 to $25 million)

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.

1. #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.
2. #1071 Ergin, Kazim, Ugur Guclu, and Zeki Uz (1967). A Catalogue of Earthquakes for Turkey and Surrounding Area (11 A.D. to 1964 A.D.). Istanbul Teknik Universities (Technical University of Istanbul), Istanbul, Turkey.
3. #1057 Alsinawi, S. and Amir S. Issa (1985). On the historical seismicity of Iraq. IASPEI/UNESCO Working Group on Historical Seismograms and Earthquakes, August 27-28, 1985, Tokyo; Preliminary Proceedings, p. 85-92.
4. #1098 Ambraseys, N.N. (1961). On the seismicity of South-west Asia; Data from a XV Century Arabic Manuscript. Revue por l'Etude des Calamities, no. 37, Union Internacionale de Secures, Geneva, Switzerland, p. 18-30.
5. #1222 Alsinawi, S.A., S.G. Baban, and A.S. Issa (1985). Historical seismicity of the Arab region. IASPEI/UNESCO Working Group on Historical Seismograms and Earthquakes, August 27-28, 1985, Tokyo; Preliminary Proceedings, p. 59-84.

• December 13, 115, Antakya (Antioch), TurkeyM7.5 · 260,000 deaths · 14 km
• May 29, 525, Antakya (Antioch), Samandag, TurkeyM7 · 250,000 deaths · 29 km
• November 29, 533, Aleppo, Syria130,000 deaths · 110 km
• September 458, Antakya (Antioch), Turkey80,000 deaths · 24 km
• February 13, 1157, Halab (Aleppo), Syria80,000 deaths · 104 km
• 1169, Halab (Aleppo),dimashq (Damascus), Syria80,000 deaths · 110 km
• September 30, 587, Antakya (Antioch), Turkey60,000 deaths · 29 km
• February 6, 2023, Kahramanmaras, Syria, TurkeyM7.8 · 56,697 deaths · $43 billion · 542,461 houses destroyed · 160 km
• 341, Antakya (Antioch), Cyprus (Salamis), Turkey40,000 deaths · 24 km
• 565, Antakya (Antioch), Turkey30,000 deaths · 24 km
• August 13, 1822, Halab,dimashq (Damascus),, Antakya, Syria, Turkey20,000 deaths · 0 km
• 1183, Tripoli, Antakya, Lebanon, Dimashq, Turkey, Syria20,000 deaths · 173 km
• January 3, 1344, Membij, Aleppo, Dimashq (Damascus), Syria5,700 deaths · 185 km
• November 29, 528, Antakya (Antioch), TurkeyM7.1 · 4,870 deaths · 29 km
• October 26, 1156, Halab (Aleppo), Malatich, Syria2,000 deaths · 110 km

Significant earthquakes of 859The 800sRecent earthquakes near hereThis day in weather history

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 238.