479 BC Potidaea Earthquake
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479 BC Potidaea Earthquake
The 479 BC Potidaea tsunami is the oldest record of a paleotsunami in human history. The tsunami is believed to have been triggered by a 7.0 earthquake in the north Aegean Sea. The associated tsunami may have saved the colony of Potidaea from an invasion by Persians from the Achaemenid Empire. Tectonic setting The Aegean Sea is a seismically active region with complex plate tectonics interaction both within and surrounding the Aegean Sea plate. Seismicity in the Aegean Sea is due to active extension within the lithospheric plate. The Aegean Sea plate is defined along several major plate boundaries including the North Anatolian Fault which runs through northern Turkey, where the Anatolian sub-plate slides past the Eurasian plate along this right-lateral strike-slip fault. The southern margin is dominated by active convergence of the African plate. It converges north towards the Aegean Sea plate at a rate of 5–10 mm/yr. The subduction rate along the Hellenic subductio ...
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Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some . In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea, which in turn connects to the Black Sea, by the straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, respectively. The Aegean Islands are located within the sea and some bound it on its southern periphery, including Crete and Rhodes. The sea reaches a maximum depth of 2,639 m (8,658 ft) to the west of Karpathos. The Thracian Sea and the Sea of Crete are main subdivisions of the Aegean Sea. The Aegean Islands can be divided into several island groups, including the Dodecanese, the Cyclades, the Sporades, the Saronic Islands, Saronic islands and the North Aegean islands, North Aegean Islands, as well as Crete and its surrounding islands. The Dodecanese, located to the southeast, includes the islands of Rhodes, Kos, and Patmos; the islands of Delos and Naxos are wi ...
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Extensional Tectonics
Extensional tectonics is concerned with the structures formed by, and the Tectonics, tectonic processes associated with, the stretching of a planetary body's Crust (geology), crust or lithosphere. Deformation styles The types of structure and the geometries formed depend on the amount of stretching involved. Stretching is generally measured using the parameter ''β'', known as the ''beta factor'', where : \beta = \frac \,, ''t''0 is the initial crustal thickness and ''t''1 is the final crustal thickness. It is also the equivalent of the Strain (materials science), strain parameter ''stretch''. Low beta factor In areas of relatively low crustal stretching, the dominant structures are high to moderate angle normal faults, with associated half grabens and tilted block faulting, tilted fault blocks. High beta factor In areas of high crustal stretching, individual extensional faults may become rotated to too low a dip to remain active and a new set of faults may be generated. Lar ...
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479 BC
__NOTOC__ Year 479 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Vibulanus and Rutilus (or, less frequently, year 275 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 479 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Greece * The Persian commander Mardonius, now based in Thessaly, wins support from Argus and western Arcadia. He tries to win over Athens, but fails. * Mardonius attacks Athens once more and the Athenians are forced to retreat, whereupon he razes the city. The Spartans march north to support Athens against the Persians. * August 27 ** The Battle of Plataea in Boeotia ends the Persian invasions of Greece as the Persian general Mardonius is routed by the Greeks under Pausanias, nephew of the former Spartan King, Leonidas I.HerodotuIX.59/ref> The Athenian contingent is led by the repa ...
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Tsunamis In Greece
A tsunami ( ; from , ) 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 tsunamis in lakes, large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, landslides, Ice calving, glacier calvings, impact event, meteorite impacts and other disturbances) above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami. Unlike normal Wind wave, ocean waves, which are generated by wind, or tides, which are in turn generated by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun, a tsunami is generated by the displacement of water from a large event. Tsunami waves do not resemble normal undersea currents or Wind wave, sea waves because their Wind wave#Formation, wavelength is far longer. Rather than appearing as a breaking wave, a tsunami may instead initially resemble a rapidly rising tide. For this reason, it is often referred to as a tidal wave, although this usage is not favoured ...
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Earthquakes In Greece
This list of earthquakes in Greece includes notable earthquakes that have affected Greece during recorded history. This list is currently incomplete, representing only a fraction of the possible events. Tectonic setting Greece is located at the complex boundary zone in the eastern Mediterranean between the African plate and the Eurasian plate. The northern part of Greece lies on the Eurasian plate while the southern part lies on the Aegean Sea plate. The Aegean Sea plate is moving southwestward with respect to the Eurasian plate at about 30 mm/yr while the African plate is subducting northwards beneath the Aegean Sea plate at a rate of about 40 mm/yr. The northern plate boundary is a relatively diffuse divergent boundary while the southern convergent boundary forms the Hellenic arc. These two plate boundaries give rise to two contrasting tectonic styles, extension on east–west trending fault zones with strike-slip tectonics on SW-NE trending fault zones throughout w ...
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List Of Tsunamis
This article lists notable tsunamis, which are sorted by the date and location that they occurred. Because of seismic and volcanic activity associated with tectonic plate boundaries along the Pacific Ring of Fire, tsunamis occur most frequently in the Pacific Ocean, but are a worldwide natural phenomenon. They are possible wherever large bodies of water are found, including inland lakes, where they can be caused by landslides and glacier calving. Very small tsunamis, non-destructive and undetectable without specialized equipment, occur frequently as a result of minor earthquakes and other events. Around 1600 BC, the eruption of Thira devastated Aegean sites including Akrotiri (prehistoric city). Some Minoan sites in eastern Crete may have been damaged by ensuing tsunamis. The oldest recorded tsunami occurred in 479 BC. It destroyed a Persian army that was attacking the town of Potidaea in Greece.Smid, T. C.: "'Tsunamis' in Greek Literature", ''Greece & Rome'', 2nd Ser., Vo ...
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List Of Historical Earthquakes
Historical earthquakes is a list of significant earthquakes known to have occurred prior to the early 20th century. As the events listed here occurred before routine instrumental recordings, they rely mainly on the analysis of written sources, observations of shaking objects or animal behavior during earthquakes, religious/traditional beliefs about earthquakes (e.g. "God's punishment"). or the use of palaeoseismological techniques. There is often significant uncertainty in locations and magnitudes, and sometimes dates for each earthquakes. The number of fatalities is also often highly uncertain, particularly for the older events. Pre-11th century 11th–16th centuries 17th century 18th century 19th century Source for all events with 'USGS' labelled as the source United States Geological Survey (USGS''Note: Magnitudes are generally estimations from intensity data. When no magnitude was available, the Mercalli intensity scale, maximum intensity, written as a Roman num ...
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List Of Earthquakes In Greece
This list of earthquakes in Greece includes notable earthquakes that have affected Greece during recorded history. This list is currently incomplete, representing only a fraction of the possible events. Tectonic setting Greece is located at the complex boundary zone in the eastern Mediterranean between the African plate and the Eurasian plate. The northern part of Greece lies on the Eurasian plate while the southern part lies on the Aegean Sea plate. The Aegean Sea plate is moving southwestward with respect to the Eurasian plate at about 30 mm/yr while the African plate is Subduction, subducting northwards beneath the Aegean Sea plate at a rate of about 40 mm/yr. The northern plate boundary is a relatively diffuse divergent boundary while the southern convergent boundary forms the Hellenic arc. These two plate boundaries give rise to two contrasting tectonic styles, extensional tectonics, extension on east–west trending fault zones with strike-slip tectonics on SW-NE t ...
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Nicholas Ambraseys
Nicholas Neocles Ambraseys (19 January 1929 – 28 December 2012) was a Greek engineering seismologist. He was emeritus professor of engineering seismology and senior research fellow at Imperial College London. For many years Ambraseys was considered the leading figure and an authority in earthquake engineering and seismology in Europe. Curriculum Ambraseys studied rural and surveying engineering at the National Technical University of Athens (Diploma in 1952) and then civil engineering at Imperial College, specialising in soil mechanics and engineering seismology. He worked with Professors Alec Skempton and Alan W. Bishop and obtained his PhD degree in 1958; his thesis title was "The seismic stability of earth dams". He joined the staff in 1958 as a lecturer and he was appointed a reader in engineering seismology in 1968 and full professor of engineering seismology in 1974. In 1968 he established the Engineering Seismology Section (ESEE) (now part of the Geotechnics Se ...
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Toronean Gulf
The Toronean Gulf or Toroneos Gulf () and Toronaic Gulf (), also known as the Kassandra Gulf (), is a gulf of the Thracian Sea, part of the northern Aegean Sea, in Chalkidiki, Greece. It lies between the Kassandra, Chalkidiki, Kassandra peninsula in the west, and Sithonia in the east. History According to Herodotus, the gulf was historically known for its fish. The harbour of Torone, the only city on the gulf, was known as the "deaf" harbour due to the gulf's quietness and calmness. The ancient city of Olynthus was said to be at the head of the Toronean Gulf. References

Gulfs of Greece Thracian Sea Landforms of Chalkidiki {{CMacedonia-geo-stub ...
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Poseidon
Poseidon (; ) is one of the twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and mythology, presiding over the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 He was the protector of seafarers and the guardian of many Hellenic cities and colonies. In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, Poseidon was venerated as a chief deity at Pylos and Thebes, with the cult title "earth shaker"; in the myths of isolated Arcadia, he is related to Demeter and Persephone and was venerated as a horse, and as a god of the waters.Seneca quaest. Nat. VI 6 :Nilsson Vol I p.450 Poseidon maintained both associations among most Greeks: he was regarded as the tamer or father of horses, who, with a strike of his trident, created springs (the terms for horses and springs are related in the Greek language).Nilsson Vol I p.450 His Roman equivalent is Neptune. Homer and Hesiod suggest that Poseidon became lord of the sea when, following the overthrow of his father Cronus, the world was divided ...
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Herodotus
Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histories'', a detailed account of the Greco-Persian Wars, among other subjects such as the rise of the Achaemenid dynasty of Cyrus. He has been described as " The Father of History", a title conferred on him by the ancient Roman orator Cicero, and the " Father of Lies" by others. The ''Histories'' primarily cover the lives of prominent kings and famous battles such as Marathon, Thermopylae, Artemisium, Salamis, Plataea, and Mycale. His work deviates from the main topics to provide a cultural, ethnographical, geographical, and historiographical background that forms an essential part of the narrative and provides readers with a wellspring of additional information. Herodotus was criticized in his times for his inclusion of "legends an ...
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