December 13, 115 Tsunami: Antakya (Antioch), Turkey

On 13 December A.D. 115, a tsunami struck the ancient port city of Caesarea (Israel) and was recorded in the Talmud (Shalem, 1956; Amiran et al., 1994). According to the description, the wave impacted the Levantine coast with effects recorded at Caesarea and Yavne. The tsunami was likely caused by a powerful earthquake that destroyed the city of Antioch (Ambraseys and Jackson, 1998) and originated somewhere along the eastern Cyprean Arc (Ben-Avraham et al., 1995). The construction of Caesarea's harbor by Herod the Great in 21 B.e. is well documented by excavation work and descriptions of the harbor by the historian Josephus Flavius (Whiston, 1999; Holum et al., 1988). The reasons for the rapid decline in the harbor, about one century later, are less clear, and heavily debated (Reinhardt and Raban, 1999; Hohlfelder, 2000). However, the favored interpretation has been the catastrophic destruction of the harbor by an earthquake; although the role of a tsunami has been considered, no conclusive evidence has ever been found (Raban, 1992, 1999; Reinhardt and Raban, 1999; Mart and Perecman, 1996). Records of sub-recent (past 2000 yr) tsunamis in the eastern Mediterranean are based primarily on textual records with variable accuracy (e.g., Neev et al., 1973; Amiran et al., 1994; Mart and Perecman, 1996; Ambraseys and Jackson, 1998; Karcz, 2004), none of which has been substantiated with geological or archaeological evidence. (reference #4282)

13 December A.D. 115 at night. 36.25 N 36.1 E Magnitude 7.4 (ML). Probably triggered by an earthquake generated on the Cyprian Arc fault system; Reliability: 3 (probable tsunami). Possible landslide; tsunami waves hit Caesaria, the Lebanese coast and Yavne. (reference #9275)

Guidoboni et al. (1994) do not mention any evidence for a tsunami. However, according to Ben-Menahem (1979) and Amiran et al. (1994) a questionable tsunami hit Yavne (Javneh) and possibly Caesaria in Israel. (reference #2815)

13 December A.D. 115. Overall, while some of the historical accounts seem questionable, the accumulation of tsunami-related physical findings in Caesarea, which is the only evidence beyond historical text available for the Levantine coast at present, provides some support for the occurrence of a tsunami. (reference #10416)