Aug. 9, 2007 — The source of one of history's most catastrophic events, the tsunami-generating 551 A.D. Beirut-Tripoli earthquake, lies dangerously just four miles off Lebanon's coast, according to a new underwater survey by an international team of geophysicists.
Responsible for the build-up of the Mount Lebanon range that towers around 10,000 feet above sea level, the previously unknown submarine fault moves roughly every 1,500 years. That suggests a disaster similar to the earthquake and tsunami that on July 9, 551, destroyed most of the coastal cities of Phoenicia (modern-day Lebanon), could be due any day.
Historical accounts indicate that the ancient event was a true cataclysm, with the sea retreating up to 10,000 feet. Tripoli was reported to have "drowned," while Beirut took almost 1,300 years to recover.
"It was arguably one of the most devastating historical submarine earthquakes in the eastern Mediterranean," Ata Elias of the National Center for Geophysical Research in Beirut, Lebanon, and colleagues write in the current issue of the journal Geology.
To trace the origin of the disaster, Elias and colleagues used high-resolution sonar to map the contours of the sea floor between the Lebanese coastal towns of Enfeh and Damour.
"The images show details of spectacular submarine ruptures...that cut the smoothly sediment-mantled seafloor," the researchers wrote.
Running parallel to the coast offshore of Mount Lebanon, the relatively fresh seafloor seismic breaks indicate an active thrust fault is responsible for major earthquakes there.
The researchers found additional evidence after examining stretches of coast whose beaches rise like staircases out of the Mediterranean.
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