Between one and three earthquakes struck the Jordan Valley, likely in 659 CE and possibly again in 660 CE. Extensive damage was reported in Jericho and its surroundings, as well as east of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, suggesting an epicenter in the southern Jordan Valley or the northern Dead Sea. The first two shocks reportedly struck around 8 a.m. (2nd hour) on Friday 7 June and around 2 p.m. (8th hour) on Sunday 9 June 659 CE. These events were described in the Maronite Chronicle, an apparently contemporaneous source. Other authors such as Elias of Nisibis and Theophanes mention only one earthquake.

The Sunday 9 June 659 CE event was also reported in Damascus and appears to have been used polemically against a rival church faction. The Maronite Chronicle further mentions a third earthquake in 660 CE, seemingly part of another polemic—this time directed against the Islamic Caliphate. It was said to have occurred after Caliph Muʿāwiyah I's accession ritual in Jerusalem. However, both Islamic tradition and most historians date that accession to 661 CE. A chronological inconsistency in the Maronite Chronicle—a spring frost placed in 661 CE when the day and date actually correspond to 662 CE—supports the interpretation that the chronicler placed Muʿāwiyah’s accession a year too early to align it with the supposed earthquake.

Archaeoseismic corroboration may come from Yavne and Jerash. Langgut et al. (2015) dated 7th-century CE seismic destruction in Yavne to approximately June, while Gawlikowski (1992: 358), citing a discovery by J. Seigne in Jerash, reported that “the collapse of the vaulted corridor of the lower terrace of Zeus [in the 7th century CE] buries under the rubble a herd of goats; the age of a kid indicates that the cataclysm took place in May–June.”