November 25, 1343 Tsunami: Bay of Naples, Italy

Underground shocks in Naples caused significant damage, according to some data, and lives were lost (reference #2130).

In Amalfi a terrible and destructive phenomenon like a storm in 1343 has been transformed, some centuries after, in tsunami by economic interests more or less connected. (reference #12369)

Petrarch, in a letter written on November 26th, 1343, to Cardinal Giovanni Colonna, describes an impressive, unprecedented sea-storm, which occurred in the night between November 24th and 25th, causing hundreds of deaths in the harbor of Naples and destroying several boats both inside and outside the harbor. Tis same event had a regional impact on all the coast of Campania; in particular it largely wiped away the port structures of Naples and Amalfi that are directly exposed to waves generated in the Aeolian region. Although the letter by Petrarch and the devastation of Amalfi have been interpreted in various ways (a tsunami caused by submarine eruption or by an off shore earthquake or by a landslide on Mt. Epomeo at Ischia's island), with some of them being unlikely (extraordinary storm, mudflows), these include the possibility that a tsunami struck the Campania coasts on 24th November 1343. (reference #12370)