The 1509 Constantinople earthquake or historically ('Minor Judgment Day') occurred in the

Sea of Marmara The Sea of Marmara,; grc, Προποντίς, Προποντίδα, Propontís, Propontída also known as the Marmara Sea, is an inland sea located entirely within the borders of Turkey. It connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea via the ...

on 10 September 1509 at about 10 p.m. The earthquake had an estimated magnitude of on the

surface wave magnitude The surface wave magnitude (M_s) scale is one of the magnitude scales used in seismology to describe the size of an earthquake. It is based on measurements of Rayleigh surface waves that travel along the uppermost layers of the Earth. This ma ...

scale. A

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

and forty-five days of

aftershocks In seismology, an aftershock is a smaller earthquake that follows a larger earthquake, in the same area of the main shock, caused as the displaced crust adjusts to the effects of the main shock. Large earthquakes can have hundreds to thousand ...

followed the earthquake. The death toll of this earthquake is poorly known, with estimates in the range of 1,000 to 13,000.

Background

The

is a pull-apart basin formed at a releasing bend in the

North Anatolian Fault The North Anatolian Fault (NAF) ( tr, Kuzey Anadolu Fay Hattı) is an active right-lateral strike-slip fault in northern Anatolia, and is the transform boundary between the Eurasian Plate and the Anatolian Plate. The fault extends westward fro ...

, a right-lateral

strike-slip fault In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

. This local zone of extension occurs where this

transform Transform may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Transform (scratch), a type of scratch used by turntablists * ''Transform'' (Alva Noto album), 2001 * ''Transform'' (Howard Jones album) or the title song, 2019 * ''Transform'' (Powerman 5000 album ...

boundary between the Anatolian Plate and the

Eurasian Plate The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate that includes most of the continent of Eurasia (a landmass consisting of the traditional continents of Europe and Asia), with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent and ...

steps northwards to the west of Izmit from the Izmit Fault to the Ganos Fault. The pattern of faults within the Sea of Marmara basin is complex but near

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

there is a single main fault segment with a sharp bend. To the west, the fault trends west–east and is pure strike-slip in type. To the east, the fault is NW-SE trending and shows evidence of both normal and strike-slip motion. Movement on this fault, which bounds the

Çınarcık Basin The Çınarcık Basin is a submarine tectonic basin located in the Sea of Marmara, in Turkey. Geography The Çınarcık basin gets its name from Çınarcık, a town and district of the Yalova Province in the Marmara region of Turkey. It is the eas ...

, was the most likely cause of the 1509 event.

Damage

Earthquake of 1509 in the Sea of Marmara

The area of significant damage (greater than VII (''Very strong'')) extended from

Çorlu Çorlu () is a northwestern Turkish city in inland Eastern Thrace that falls under the administration of the Province of Tekirdağ. It is a rapidly growing industrial centre built on flatland located on the motorway Otoyol 3 and off the highwa ...

in the west to Izmit in the east.

Galata Galata is the former name of the Karaköy neighbourhood in Istanbul, which is located at the northern shore of the Golden Horn. The district is connected to the historic Fatih district by several bridges that cross the Golden Horn, most notabl ...

and

Büyükçekmece Büyükçekmece is a district and municipality in the suburbs of Istanbul, Turkey on the Sea of Marmara coast of the European side, west of the city. It is largely an industrial area with a population of 380,000. The mayor is Hasan Akgün ( CHP). ...

also suffered severe damage. In

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

109 mosques were utterly destroyed, while most of those left standing suffered damage to their minarets. While 1070 homes collapsed, 49 towers along the

Walls of Constantinople The Walls of Constantinople ( el, Τείχη της Κωνσταντινουπόλεως) are a series of defensive stone walls that have surrounded and protected the city of Constantinople (today Istanbul in Turkey) since its founding as the ...

also collapsed or were damaged. The newly built Bayezid II Mosque was badly damaged; the main dome was destroyed and a

minaret A minaret (; ar, منارة, translit=manāra, or ar, مِئْذَنة, translit=miʾḏana, links=no; tr, minare; fa, گل‌دسته, translit=goldaste) is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generall ...

collapsed. The

Fatih Mosque The large Fatih Mosque ( tr, Fatih Camii, "Conqueror's Mosque" in English) is an Ottoman mosque off Fevzi Paşa Caddesi in the Fatih district of Istanbul, Turkey. The original mosque was constructed between 1463 and 1470 on the site of the Ch ...

suffered damage to its four great columns and the dome was split. The quake also damaged the Rumeli Fortress, Anadolu Fortress, the

Yoros Castle Yoros Castle ( tr, Yoros Kalesi) is a ruined castle dating back to Byzantine times that stands above the confluence of the Bosphorus and the Black Sea, to the north of Joshua's Hill, in Beykoz district, Istanbul, Turkey. It is commonly referred t ...

in Anadolu Kavağı, and the

Maiden's Tower __NOTOC__ The Maiden's Tower ( tr, Kız Kulesi), also known as Leander's Tower (''Tower of Leandros'') since the medieval Byzantine period, is a tower on a small islet at the southern entrance of the Bosphorus strait, from the coast of Ü ...

. The Grand Mosque of

Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia ( 'Holy Wisdom'; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque ( tr, Ayasofya-i Kebir Cami-i Şerifi), is a mosque and major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The cathedral was originally built as a Greek Ortho ...

survived almost unscathed, although a minaret collapsed. Inside the mosque, the plaster that had been used to cover up the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

s inside the dome fell off, revealing the Christian images. The number of dead and injured is hard to estimate, with different sources giving accounts varying from 1,000 to 13,000. It is believed that some members of the Ottoman dynasty died in this earthquake.

Aftershock In seismology, an aftershock is a smaller earthquake that follows a larger earthquake, in the same area of the main shock, caused as the displaced crust adjusts to the effects of the main shock. Large earthquakes can have hundreds to thousand ...

s continued for 45 days after the earthquake, and people were unable to return to their homes for two months. Ottoman Turks felt that

doomsday Doomsday may refer to: * Eschatology, a time period described in the eschatological writings in Abrahamic religions and in doomsday scenarios of non-Abrahamic religions. * Global catastrophic risk, a hypothetical event explored in science and fict ...

had arrived. Indeed, the quake was so destructive for Constantinople that historians referred to it as “Kıyamet-i Sugra” or “Little Doomsday.”

Aftermath

The earthquake was allegedly predicted by an unnamed Greek monk from

Saint Catherine's Monastery Saint Catherine's Monastery ( ar, دير القدّيسة كاترين; grc-gre, Μονὴ τῆς Ἁγίας Αἰκατερίνης), officially the Sacred Autonomous Royal Monastery of Saint Katherine of the Holy and God-Trodden Mount Sinai, ...

Sinai Sinai commonly refers to: * Sinai Peninsula, Egypt * Mount Sinai, a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt * Biblical Mount Sinai, the site in the Bible where Moses received the Law of God Sinai may also refer to: * Sinai, South Dakota, a place ...

while present in the

Sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...

's court. European interpretations at the time viewed the earthquake as a sort of punishment, a punishment from God set upon the Turks for taking up arms against European Christians. Similarly, Sultan

Bayezid II Bayezid II ( ota, بايزيد ثانى, Bāyezīd-i s̱ānī, 3 December 1447 – 26 May 1512, Turkish: ''II. Bayezid'') was the eldest son and successor of Mehmed II, ruling as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1481 to 1512. During his reign, ...

saw it as a punishment from God, however he attributed the punishment to the wrongdoings of his ministers. The sultan's residence

Topkapı Palace The Topkapı Palace ( tr, Topkapı Sarayı; ota, طوپقپو سرايى, ṭopḳapu sarāyı, lit=cannon gate palace), or the Seraglio A seraglio, serail, seray or saray (from fa, سرای, sarāy, palace, via Turkish and Italian) i ...

was not damaged but Bayezid II's bedroom collapsed at the tremor, with the sultan only saved by the fact he had left his chambers only hours earlier. After staying for ten days in a

tent A tent () is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over, attached to a frame of poles or a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using gu ...

set up in the palace garden, Bayezid II went to stay in former capital of

Edirne Edirne (, ), formerly known as Adrianople or Hadrianopolis (Greek: Άδριανούπολις), is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, ...

. The Ottoman Imperial Council (''Divan-ı Hümayun'') convened after the quake and made decisions to deal with the effects of the disaster. Constantinople had to be reconstructed and an additional tax of 22

akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (also spelled ''akche'', ''akcheh''; ota, آقچه; ) refers to a silver coin which was the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. The word itself evolved from the word "silver or silver money", this word is deri ...

would be taken from each household for the task, it was decided. Afterward, an empire-wide initiative was launched to reconstruct the city. Tens of thousands of workers, stonemasons and carpenters were brought to Istanbul from both

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

and

Rumelia Rumelia ( ota, روم ايلى, Rum İli; tr, Rumeli; el, Ρωμυλία), etymologically "Land of the Names of the Greeks#Romans (Ῥωμαῖοι), Romans", at the time meaning Eastern Orthodox Christians and more specifically Christians f ...

. Beginning on March 29, 1510, construction works in the city were undergone hastily and completed on June 1, 1510.

Characteristics

Earthquake

From the area and intensity of shaking, a fault rupture has been estimated. Major shocks occurred at half-hour intervals and were violent and protracted in nature, forcing residents to seek refuge in open parks and squares. Aftershocks were said to have continued for 18 days without causing any further damage, however, it did delay reconstruction in some areas.

Tsunami

A tsunami is mentioned in some sources with a run-up of greater than , but discounted in others. A

turbidite A turbidite is the geologic deposit of a turbidity current, which is a type of amalgamation of fluidal and sediment gravity flow responsible for distributing vast amounts of clastic sediment into the deep ocean. Sequencing Turbidites were ...

bed whose deposition matches the date of the earthquake has been recognised in the

Çınarcık Çınarcık is a town and district of Yalova Province in the Marmara region of Turkey. The mayor is Numan Soyer. (AK Party). Çınarcık has a permanent population of 18,000 but its location near İstanbul has made it a popular location for s ...

Basin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1509 Constantinople earthquake

Earthquakes in Turkey 16th century in Istanbul 1509 in science 1509 in Europe 1509 in Asia 1509 in the Ottoman Empire

Sea of Marmara