July 30, 1627 Tsunami: Gargano Peninsula, Italy

Strong earthquakes with tsunami occurred on the Gargano Peninsula, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Weak underground shocks began to be felt within the focal zone in October 1626 and then in January-April 1627. After that a lull set in and continued till 16-17 or till 11h on July 30, and then a terrible earthquake occurred. A loud crash preceded the main shock. Then, the three-stage oscillation of the earth followed, increasingly strong and finishing with very long prolonged shocks.

The city of S. Severo had buildings demolished and 800 people were killed. Serracapriola almost completely destroyed and 2,500 killed. S. Paolo di Civitate had 350 killed. Ripalta abbey was damaged. In Apricena 900 killed. Sannicandro and Chieti damaged. Zone of slight damage extended along the shore of the Adriatic Sea approx. 200 km. Total number of victims 5,000.

Earthquake had been caused by a fault along the plane of the fault fissure extended on dry land almost parallel to the shore 20km away from it. Length of fault was ripped open ~20km, the northern side was thrown down.

The height of the wave amounted to several metres. The tsunami embraced a vast part of the shore.

(above from reference #2130).

Along the coast between S.Nicandro and the Fortore river mouth, near the Lesina lake, the sea withdrew 2-3 miles and then flooded the coast and possibly the village of Lesina. Low land between Silvi and Mutignano were inundated. In Manfredonia the waves reached the middle of the city walls, about 2.5 m above the ground. At the Saro (today called Foro) river mouth, sea withdrawal observed. (reference #4139)

A strong tsunami was generated, and Tinti and Piatanesi (1996) hypothesise, on the basis of tsunami data, that the tsunamigenic sources could have been located offshore. The event was described by many coeval authors (Fig. 3). Along the Gargano coast, between S. Nicandro and the Fortore River mouth near the Lesina Lake, the sea withdrew 2–3 miles, leaving the Lesina Lake completely dry, and then flooded the coast and the village of Lesina (Foglia 1627; Anonymous 1627; De Poardi 1627; Ballerani 1627), ‘the Abbey of Ripalda was swallowed by water’ (Del Vasto 1627), and ‘in Manfredonia the waves reached halfway up the city walls’ (Cerqua 1627). Sea withdrawal was also observed at the Saro (today called Foro) River mouth (Antinori 1782), while the low land between Silvi and Mutignano (along the coast, more than 100 km north from the epicentre) was inundated (Boschi et al. 1995). The tsunami was very strong in the region of Gargano, but if the waves reached the opposite coast, they were too small to have been documented in the Italian or Croatian archives. (reference #9531)