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| The '''Basel earthquake of 1356''', also known as the '''Great Basel Earthquake''' and the '''1356 Basel earthquake''', is the most significant historic seismological event to have occurred in ] to date. The ] destroyed the town of ] (]) on ] ] and caused much destruction in a vast region extending into ] and ]. | The '''Basel earthquake of 1356''', also known as the '''Great Basel Earthquake''' and the '''1356 Basel earthquake''', is the most significant historic seismological event to have occurred in ] to date. The ] destroyed the town of ] (]) on ] ] and caused much destruction in a vast region extending into ] and ]. | ||
Revision as of 05:28, 1 January 2007
The Basel earthquake of 1356, also known as the Great Basel Earthquake and the 1356 Basel earthquake, is the most significant historic seismological event to have occurred in Central Europe to date. The earthquake destroyed the town of Basel (Switzerland) on 18 October 1356 and caused much destruction in a vast region extending into France and Germany.
The epicentre was actually located in Germany, in the Upper Rhine valley (Rhine rift) between Waldkirch and St. Peter in Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald.
The earthquake could be felt as far away as Zürich, Konstanz and even in the Ile-de-France). The maximum seismic intensity registered on the MSK scale was of IX-X. The macroseismic map was established notably on the basis of damages reported by the region's 30 to 40 castles . From this macroseismic data, the Mw magnitude of the earthquake is estimated at around 6.2.
The earthquake took place during the evening at around 22:00 (local time) and numerous aftershocks followed on the night between the October 18-19. Basel experienced a second, very violent shock in the middle of the night. The town within the ramparts was destroyed by a fire when torches and candles falling to the floor set the wooden houses ablaze. The seismic crisis lasted a year. The number of deaths within the town of Basel alone is estimated at 300.
The modeling of the macroseismic data suggests that the earthquake's source had an East-West orientation, a direction corresponding with the overlapping faults on the Jura Front. On the other hand, recent paleoseismologic studies attribute instead the cause of this earthquake to a normal fault, NNE-SSW orientated and south of the town. The significant magnitude of the event suggests a possible extension of this fault under the town itself.
This earthquake is also known as the 'Séisme de la Saint-Luc', as 18 October is the feast day of Saint Luke the Evangelist.
Sources
- Mayer-Rosa D. et B. Cadiot (1979). A review of the 1356 Basel earthquake: basic data, Tectonophysics, 53, pp 325-333
- ^ Lambert J., Winter T., Dewez T. J. B. et P. Sabourault (2005). New hypotheses on the maximum damage area of the 1356 Basel earthquake (Switzerland), Quaternary Science Reviews, 24 , pp 383-401
- Von Waltenkofen K. (1357). Alphabetum Narrationum.
- Meyer, B., Lacassin, R., Brulhet, J., Mouroux, B., 1994. The Basel 1356 earthquake: which fault produced it? Terra Nova 6, 54–63
- Meghraoui M., Delouis B., Ferry M., Giardini D., Huggenberger P., Spottke I. et M. Granet (2001). Active Normal Faulting in the Upper Rhine Graben and Paleoseismic Identification of the 1356 Basel Earthquake. Science, 293, pp 2070-2073. doi: 10.1126/science.1010618