Ancient sources describe an earthquake that caused significant damage in Acre (also known as Akko or Ptolemais), Sidon, and Tyre, with more limited damage reported in Beirut. Because destruction is reported primarily from cities along the Phoenician coast, the epicenter may have been located offshore of the Lebanese coast. Russell (1985) noted the possibility that archaeoseismic damage at Gush Halav might be attributable to this event, although the excavation chronology at the site remains debated. Archaeoseismic evidence from the Negev and paleoseismic evidence from the Dead Sea for an earthquake around ~500 CE may instead relate to the hypothesized Negev Quake of approximately 500 CE rather than the Fire in the Sky Quake of 502 CE. Ancient accounts also report a "great fire in the sky" occurring on the same night as the earthquake. Russell (1985) interpreted this phenomenon as an aurora borealis. Guidoboni et al. (1994) instead suggested that the report could represent earthquake lights, a hypothesized phenomenon possibly produced by gas ionization and sometimes anecdotally reported before seismic events. However, the description that the "fire in the sky" appeared in the northern part of the sky and was observed as far north as Edessa— far from the presumed epicenter—more strongly supports interpretation as an aurora borealis.