The 1202 Syria earthquake struck at about dawn on 20 May 1202 (598 AH) with an epicenter in southwestern Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

. Up to 1,100,000 deaths have been associated with this earthquake, although other estimates are much smaller. It was felt over a very wide area, from Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

 to Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

 and Anatolia

Anatolia

Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

 to upper Egypt

Upper Egypt

Upper Egypt is the strip of land, on both sides of the Nile valley, that extends from the cataract boundaries of modern-day Aswan north to the area between El-Ayait and Zawyet Dahshur . The northern section of Upper Egypt, between El-Ayait and Sohag is sometimes known as Middle Egypt...

. The cities of Tyre, Acre

Acre, Israel

Acre , is a city in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel at the northern extremity of Haifa Bay. Acre is one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the country....

 and Nablus

Nablus

Nablus is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank, approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 126,132. Located in a strategic position between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a Palestinian commercial and cultural center.Founded by the...

 were heavily damaged. A magnitude of M_s = 7.6 has been estimated with damage up to 11 on the modified Mercalli intensity scale.

Records of the earthquake

A large earthquake or series of earthquakes is described in many written sources during the period 1201–1202 (597–598 AH). It is unclear as to whether they refer to a single mainshock with several large aftershocks or more than one unrelated earthquake. Given the rarity of such large events in this area it has been considered more likely that the reports all refer to the same mainshock. Other workers have recognised two separate events, the earlier (M_s = 7.5) on 6 June 1201 and the latter (M_s = 6.8) on 20 May 1202, occurring on two different (but contiguous) segments of the Dead Sea Transform

Dead Sea Transform

The Dead Sea Transform fault system, also sometimes referred to as the Dead Sea Rift, is a geologic fault which runs from the Maras Triple Junction to the northern end of the Red Sea Rift...

.

Cause

The distribution of reported damage strongly suggests that the earthquake resulted from movement on a segment of the dominantly strike-slip Dead Sea transform. Detailed studies of recent sediments along the line of the Yammoûneh Fault, which borders the Beqaa Valley

Beqaa Valley

The Beqaa Valley is a fertile valley in east Lebanon. For the Romans, the Beqaa Valley was a major agricultural source, and today it remains Lebanon’s most important farming region...

, support movement on this fault as the most likely origin for the 1202 earthquake.

The tsunami

Tsunami

A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...

 reports associated with this earthquake are unlikely to be directly caused by the movement of the fault as none of the fault displacement happened beneath the sea. Most large tsunamis recorded in the eastern Mediterranean are thought to be the result of seismically triggered underwater landslides.

Areas affected

The earthquake was felt in Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

, Armenia

Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

, Anatolia

Anatolia

Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

, Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Jordan and Egypt (as far south as Aswan

Aswan

Aswan , formerly spelled Assuan, is a city in the south of Egypt, the capital of the Aswan Governorate.It stands on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract and is a busy market and tourist centre...

). The greatest damage was reported from Mount Lebanon

Mount Lebanon

Mount Lebanon , as a geographic designation, is a Lebanese mountain range, averaging above 2,200 meters in height and receiving a substantial amount of precipitation, including snow, which averages around four meters deep. It extends across the whole country along about , parallel to the...

, Tyre, Acre, Baalbek

Baalbek

Baalbek is a town in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon, altitude , situated east of the Litani River. It is famous for its exquisitely detailed yet monumentally scaled temple ruins of the Roman period, when Baalbek, then known as Heliopolis, was one of the largest sanctuaries in the Empire...

, Beit Jann

Beit Jann

Beit Jann is a Druze village on Mt. Meron, in northern Israel. At 940 meters above sea level, Beit Jann is one of the highest inhabited locations in the country. In 2007, the population was 10,300. The mayor of Beit Jann is Youssef Qabalan.-History:...

, Al-Samyra, Nablus, Banyas, Damascus

Damascus

Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

, Hauran

Hauran

Hauran, , also spelled Hawran or Houran, is a volcanic plateau, a geographic area and a people located in southwestern Syria and extending into the northwestern corner of Jordan. It gets its name from the Aramaic Hawran, meaning "cave land." In geographic and geomorphic terms, its boundaries...

, Tripoli

Tripoli, Lebanon

Tripoli is the largest city in northern Lebanon and the second-largest city in Lebanon. Situated 85 km north of the capital Beirut, Tripoli is the capital of the North Governorate and the Tripoli District. Geographically located on the east of the Mediterranean, the city's history dates back...

 and Hama

Hama

Hama is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria north of Damascus. It is the provincial capital of the Hama Governorate. Hama is the fourth-largest city in Syria—behind Aleppo, Damascus, and Homs—with a population of 696,863...

(VIII-IX).

Tsunami

Tsunami probably associated with this event were observed on eastern Cyprus and along the Syrian and Lebanese coasts.

Casualties

The figure of 1,100,000 deaths often quoted for this earthquake includes all deaths for the year in question, including those from the famine and subsequent epidemics caused by the failure of the Nile flood that year. A more realistic estimate has been made from the analysis of contemporary records of 30,000 deaths.