The 479 BC Potidaea tsunami is the oldest record of a paleotsunami in human history. The tsunami is believed to have been triggered by a 7.0

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

in the north

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some . In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea, which in turn con ...

. The associated tsunami may have saved the colony of

Potidaea __NOTOC__ Potidaea (; , ''Potidaia'', also Ποτείδαια, ''Poteidaia'') was a colony founded by the Corinthians around 600 BC in the narrowest point of the peninsula of Pallene, Chalcidice, Pallene, the westernmost of three peninsulas at t ...

from an invasion by Persians from the

Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian peoples, Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, i ...

Tectonic setting

The

is a seismically active region with complex plate tectonics interaction both within and surrounding the Aegean Sea plate. Seismicity in the Aegean Sea is due to active extension within the lithospheric plate. The Aegean Sea plate is defined along several major plate boundaries including the

North Anatolian Fault The North Anatolian Fault (NAF; ) is an active right-lateral strike-slip fault in northern Anatolia, and is the transform boundary between the Eurasian plate and the Anatolian sub-plate. The fault extends westward from a junction with the Ea ...

which runs through northern Turkey, where the Anatolian sub-plate slides past the Eurasian plate along this right-lateral

strike-slip In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

fault. The southern margin is dominated by active convergence of the African plate. It converges north towards the Aegean Sea plate at a rate of 5–10 mm/yr. The subduction rate along the Hellenic subduction zone at 35 mm/yr, however, greatly exceeds the velocity of the African plate. North–south extension within the Aegean Sea plate in the

back-arc region The back-arc region is the area behind a volcanic arc. In island volcanic arcs, it consists of back-arc basins of oceanic crust with abyssal depths, which may be separated by remnant arcs, similar to island arcs. In continental arcs, the back-a ...

compensates the subduction rate. Shallow crustal earthquakes within the Aegean Sea plate is a result of this extension, accommodated by east–west trending normal faults.

Earthquake

The 7.0 earthquake had an epicenter somewhere in

Macedonia Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...

. It was given a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (''Violent'').

Tsunami

During the Persian siege of the sea town Potidaea, Greece,

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

reports how Persian attackers who tried to exploit an unusual retreat of the water were suddenly surprised by "a great flood-tide, higher, as the people of the place say, than any one of the many that had been before". Herodotus attributes the cause of the sudden flood to the wrath of

Poseidon Poseidon (; ) is one of the twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and mythology, presiding over the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 He was the protector of seafarers and the guardian of many Hellenic cit ...

. The large tsunami was observed in the

Toronean Gulf The Toronean Gulf or Toroneos Gulf () and Toronaic Gulf (), also known as the Kassandra Gulf (), is a gulf of the Thracian Sea, part of the northern Aegean Sea, in Chalkidiki, Greece. It lies between the Kassandra, Chalkidiki, Kassandra peninsul ...

which devastated Potidaea. The tsunami sank multiple Persian ships attempting to invade the colony, drowning several hundred soldiers. The source of the tsunami is still controversial with its origins attributed to meteorological effects or a submarine landslide. Historical documents did not mention the occurrence of a storm however.

References

{{coord, display=title Earthquakes in Greece Tsunamis in Greece 479 BC 1st-millennium BC earthquakes 5th century BC in Greece

Tectonic setting

Earthquake

Tsunami

See also

References