May 552 Tsunami: Maliakos Gulf, Greece

552, May. Maliakos Gulf. 38o24' N, 22o24' E, earthquake magnitude 7.2, intensity X, tsunami reliability 3, intensity 4. (ref #2427)

552, May. Corinthos Gulf. intensity MM VII, tsunami reliability 4. (ref #2699)

551 Ad. Spring. Malian Gulf. [...]From Procopius we learn that this event took place while Narses was marching against the Goths. This fixes the time of the earthquake in the spring of 551 AD. The description of this event makes it rather difficult to distinguish the origin of the sea-wave. It appears that in a confined region such as that of the Maliacos Gulf, for the wave to flood all of a sudden with such impetous the surrounding coasts jt should have had its seat within the gulf. Should this had been h e case, the origin of the sea-wave seems more likely to had been connected with submarine landslides, rather than with fault movements since the shock itself does not seem to had been of considerable magnitude. (ref #24)

551 (possibly 552), spring or July 7. Aegean Sea, eastern Greece, Strait of Euboea (between the Island of Euboea and the continent). The destructive earthquake embraced both coasts of the Gulf of Corinth. In the pleistoseismal zone, the earth opened and closed again, but part of the deformation of Earth's surface was conserved including an upthrust system along the northern shore of the Gulf of Corinth. Patras, Nafpaktos, Corinth, Chaeronea and other towns were destroyed. There were thousands of victims, including 4,000 people in Patras. The same area as during the earthquakes on October 12, 1856, and on August 1, 1860, was shaken. In the apex of the Gulf of Maliacus, the sea suddenly rushed up the dry land and reached far inland destroying buildings in Echinos, Tarfi and in Boeotia. According to other sources the tsunami started with the drop in water level. After the water went away, fish, including rare specimens, were left stranded. The low water lasted so long that citizens had time to reach the islands located in the apex of the bay.(ref #2130)

Ref #9116:

551 Maliakos Gulf. The second event in AD 551 mentioned by Procopius is the sea wave in the Maliakos Gulf between Thessaly and Boeotia, about 70 km to the north of Schisma, which destroyed the towns of Echinus and Scarpheia. He does not mention any damage to these or other towns due to an earthquake.

Ref #13667:

Scholars have some doubts about Procopius’ reliability since he frequently copied classical authors. We found impressive similarities between the texts of Procopius and those by classic authors regarding the 426 BC central Greece tsunamigenic earthquake. Very likely the AD 552 Maliac Bay tsunami is a fake event in mimic of the 426 BC one […]

There is no plausible mechanism explaining how the AD 552 Maliac Bay tsunami would be capable to propagate up to Lechaion given that Maliac Bay is not physically connected to Corinth Gulf.

[…] we consider as a likely scenario that in AD 552 two strong earthquakes, but without tsunami generation, ruptured the Gulf of Corinth, in the areas of Boeotia (Chaeronia-Coronea) and of Patras-Naupactus (Figure 3). The Patras-Naupactus earthquake case is supported by independent archeological findings, at least in Patras and its environs. However, the Boeotia earthquake case is less documented as compared to the Patras-Naupactus case.

The Procopius’ story about the destructive tsunami that inundated Maliac Bay, northern Evoikos Gulf, is not convincing at all, very likely being a fake, just a mimic of the one of 426 BC. At all evidence, Procopius’ narration is an amalgamation of real contemporary earthquake events, of exaggerated earthquake effects, and of fake “events,” the last being only mimises of classic authors

Note: See 551 April event as this event is likely a duplicate listing with different date interpretations.