Strong Motion and Tsunami Related to the AD 365 Crete Earthquake

Abstract

The West Asian region is a tectonically active area due to crustal deformation; the associated earthquakes occur on a large scale and have been recorded from the historical period to the present. Investigating the most suitable solution for this crustal movement will contribute to this region’s earthquake and tsunami disaster mitigation. The most reliable parameters were defined by researchers and applied with a non-uniform distribution in the fault plane based on Papadimitriou et al [1]. The calculated AD 365 earthquake waveform provides an indication of maximum acceleration using the stochastic Green’s function method with the selected parameters. Using this estimation, damage to masonry structures can be calculated. The ancient Crete cities of Aptra and Chania were both hit by the AD 365 earthquake. Aptera, built on out-cropping rock, would have been 80% destroyed. In comparison, Chania, in northwest Crete, would have been completely destroyed because it was built on thick sedimentary layers. The subsurface composition at Chania would have made it a high seismic intensity area. This earthquake was followed by a tsunami that devastated the southern and eastern coasts of the Mediterranean. Based on these results, risk mitigation from seismic and tsunami events should focus on high densely populated areas with thick sedimentary layers in the Mediterranean.