Abbot Anselm wrote that on the night of 13 November 1115 CE, the earth opened in the suburbs of Antioch, swallowing up many towers and the houses next to them together with their inhabitants, adding that some, as is the custom with those people, had gone away from those places with their wives and children; but on the way back the earthquake swallowed them up where they were.

Ambraseys (2009) suggests that the correct date should be 29 November 1114 CE. He also notes that there is no evidence that Anselm (N.B. Sigbert died in 1112) ever visited Outremer [the Crusader States], so this story may come from returning crusaders. It is also possible that he gained his information from international monastic correspondence networks of the early twelfth century which, in turn, may have come from Crusaders.

Alexandre (1990:147) likewise concludes that the correct date should be 29 November 1114 CE and adds: This earthquake, which actually took place on 29/11/1114, is known in more detail from Eastern sources, notably Walter the Chancellor and Matthew of Edessa. Anselm placed the event in 1115 and apparently confused it with the earthquake in Cilicia that occurred two weeks earlier, on 13 November 1114.