Kanari et al. (2015) and Ash-Mor et al. (2017) identified a 7 cm thick Mass Transport Deposit designated Event B in R/V Mediterranean Explorer Canyon Core P27. They reported an unmodeled calibrated ¹⁴C date of 658 ± 34 cal years ¹⁴C BP, which corresponds to roughly 1292 CE. Kanari et al. (2015) associated this deposit with the 1458 CE earthquake, although several other events could also fit this approximate unmodeled age, including the 1068 CE earthquake, 1212 CE earthquake, 1293 CE earthquake, and the 1588 CE earthquakes.

Kanari et al. (2015) based their assignment of the 1458 CE earthquake at least partly on nearby work in the Elat Sabkha Trenches. In that study, Kanari et al. (2020) dated Event E2 in Trench T3 to sometime after 1294 CE and listed the earthquakes of 1458 CE and 1588 CE as likely candidates. Kanari et al. (2020) also identified liquefaction sand blows SB1 and SB2 in the same Elat Sabkha Trench (T3), which they dated to either between 1287 and 1635 CE or 1287 and 1550 CE¹. Kanari et al. (2020) concluded that the evidence from sand blows SB1 and SB2 "tend to support an interpretation of 1458 CE, but are inconclusive."

Footnotes

1 The date range of 1287 to 1635 CE collapses to 1287–1550 CE if one accepts Kanari et al. (2020)'s estimate that the bottom of the plough zone is at 1550 CE. Kanari et al. (2020) list the lower bound of this event as either 1287 CE or 1337 CE in different parts of page 13. This 50-year discrepancy suggests that different time datums (1950 CE vs. 2000 CE) were used in their calculations. Because radiocarbon dating uses a time datum of 1950 CE, 1287 CE is assumed here to be the correct lower bound.

Left - Fig. 1 - Location Map - Right - Figure 5 - 3D grain size distribution up to 2 mm (left) and radiocarbon dating results (right) along the canyon core MG10P27. Color bar represent % of grain size differential distribution by volume. Black dots represent the chronological age of the pelagic sediments, whereas diamonds represent the different color groups of LBF shells from within the MTDs. - click on either image to open in a new tab - left image from Kanari et al (2020) and right image from Ash-Mor et al (2017)