1513 CE Marash Quake

AD 1514 Malatya

A letter dated 10 March 1514, which reached Venice from Cyprus, gives the information that

per terremoti esser somerso et ruinato tre terre del Soltano a li confini del Turcho, videlicet Malathia et Terso et Adena’ (Sanuto 1879, Diario XVIII, 395).

This is repeated in a contemporary Venetian history, the context in which the event is mentioned, namely the march through Anatolia of Sultan Selim I during the summer of 1514, implying that the earthquake occurred within the first half of that year (Barbaro, vii, 1061, 1077).

A contemporary account is cited as the source of this event, which affected ‘[la] regia d’Oriente nell’anno 1514’. There is also mention of the occurrence of many destructive earthquakes in the area annexed by Sultan Selim I (references in Bonito 1792 (1980, 661)).

This may be the earthquake which was felt in Lower Egypt on Monday morning, 20 Muharrem A.H. 919 (28 March 1513). It was perceptible in Cairo, where it lasted one minute (daraja) (Ibn Iyas, 1955, i. 279).

However, without further details this information is insufficient to indicate the precise date and area over which this earthquake was felt.

References

Ambraseys, N. (2009). Earthquakes in the Mediterranean and Middle East: a multidisciplinary study of seismicity up to 1900. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press.

1513 Tarsus-Malatya

We learn from a contemporary diary that in the first months of 1514 the Ottoman Sultan Selim I arrived in Konya where he found the pestilence raging and the towns of Tarsus, Adana and Malatya almost totally destroyed by an earthquake. The shock apparently affected the province of Cilicia, which in the 16th Century extended SE of Kayseri and along the south bank of the JCizilirmak river. Thus the earthquake must have occurred before 1514, and should have destroyed a large area stretching for at least 340 km along the Border Zone. This may be the earthquake felt in Lower Egypt on 1513 March 28 which, it is said, affected the region of Rum with its centre at Sivas: without further details the account is insufficient to indicate the precise date and area over which the event was felt. It is of interest, however, that sometime in the 15th or early 16th Century the river Berdan, that flowed through Tarsus, seems to have changed its course, and since that time it has flowed outside the town, further to the NE and SE. The remoteness and large extent of the area destroyed, as well as the survival of this information in a contemporary occidental source and allusions of damage to Armenian settlements around Hacin, suggest the comparative gravity of the event. Barbaro (1842, vii.1061); Ibn Iyas (1311/1893, i.278).

References

Ambraseys, N. N. (1989) Temporary seismic quiescence: SE Turkey , Geophysical Journal International, Volume 96, Issue 2, February 1989, Pages 311–331 (in Turkish)

• from wikipedia

Afyoncu, Erhan (12 February 2023). "Kahramanmaraş ve çevresi tarih boyunca büyük depremlerle sallandı. Maraş bölgesi 1114, 1513, 1544 ve 1795'te depremlere maruz kaldı. Bunların içinde 1114 ve 1795'te meydana gelen iki büyük deprem, Maraş'ı tamamen harap etmiş ve binlerce insan ölmüştü". Sabah.

Ambraseys, N. N. (1989) Temporary seismic quiescence: SE Turkey , Geophysical Journal International, Volume 96, Issue 2, February 1989, Pages 311–331 (in Turkish)

Herece, E. (2008). Dogu Anadolu Fayi (DAF) Atlasi [Atlas of the East Anatolian Fault (EAF)=] (in Turkish). Vol. 4. General Directorate of Mineral Research and Exploration. Special Publications, Ankara. p. 359.

Mut, Gürer (8 February 2023). "Aynı fayın, aynı segmenti kırılmıştı: 1114 ve 1513'te Maraş Pazarcık'ta neler olmuştu?". Hürriyet (in Turkish).

Sünbül, Fatih; Sünbül, Ayşe Bengü (1 June 2018). "Deprem Etkileşimlerinde Coulomb Gerilme Kriteri Değerlendirmesi; Doğu Anadolu Fay Hattı" [Evaluation of Coulomb Stress Criteria in Earthquake Interactions; East Anatolian Fault Line]. Karaelmas Fen ve Mühendislik Dergisi (Research Article) (in Turkish). 8 (2). Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University: 523–535. ISSN 2146-4987.