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The Large Earthquake (~ M7) and Its Associated Tsunami of 8 November 1905 in Mt. Athos, Northern Greece

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Abstract

Mt. Athos, Northern Greece, is a monastic community with life since ~ 1000 AD, a UNESCO worldwide cultural heritage site that was repeatedly hit by earthquakes. On 8 November 1905, a large earthquake, with estimated magnitude ranging from 6.8 to 8.3, caused destruction in Mt. Athos, but the event remains little known since only few documentary sources have been utilized so far. We collected a set of sources including contemporary press reports, letters, manuscripts and books. We reconstructed the earthquake impact field and organized a database containing (1) assignment of macroseismic intensity in 44 observation points at epicentral distances up to ~ 660 km, and (2) identification of sites where important co-seismic ground failures were reported, e.g., landslides and rock falls. From magnitude-intensity relationships, a macroseismic magnitude of ~ 7 equivalent to Ms was estimated, which is close to recent instrumental estimates of ~ Mw 7.2. The examined sources revealed for the first time that a local but powerful tsunami with an ~ 3-m run-up was generated by earthquake-triggered landslides in southern Mt. Athos. Eleven persons were reportedly killed. Both the landslide and the tsunami were numerically simulated by a scenario of massive landslide entering the sea. The synthetic marigrams obtained from the simulation are consistent with the historical tsunami descriptions. Another little-known tsunami was reported in Mt. Athos in association to the large 1585 earthquake. We concluded that a comprehensive hazard assessment in Mt. Athos should take into account not only strong earthquakes but also associated phenomena like landslides and tsunamis.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Father Patapios who kindly provided to us a photograph of the manuscript of Codex (p. 185) of the Kafsokalivion Monastery where he leads a monastic life.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Ι. Triantafyllou

  2. Section of Geophysics, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    F. Zaniboni, A. Armigliato & S. Tinti

  3. International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Athens, Greece

    G. A. Papadopoulos

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  1. Ι. Triantafyllou
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Appendix

Appendix

To better understand the large Mt. Athos 1905 earthquake and its impact in the built and natural environment, we collected and examined various types of documentary sources including contemporary press reports, with publication time ranging from 27 October [O.S.]/9 November [N.S.] to 7 November [O.S.]/20 November [N.S.] 1905, manuscripts and letters as well as various scientific publications and books; [O.S.] and [N.S.] stand for Old Style (Julian) and New Style (Gregorian) calendars, respectively.

In the next lines, we have inserted the list of sources collected as well as relevant texts translated in English by the last author of this paper. Numbering of sources is the same inserted in Table 3. Short explanatory notes in brackets have been inserted by us.

1.1 Contemporary Press Reports (All Dates in O.S.)

  1. (a)

    Central Greece newspapers

    1. 1.

      ΕΦΗΜΕΡΙΣ ΤΗΣ ΘΕΣΣΑΛΙΑΣ (EFIMERIS THS THESSALIAS), 27 Oct. 1905

    2. 2.

      ΕΦΗΜΕΡΙΣ ΤΗΣ ΘΕΣΣΑΛΙΑΣ (EFIMERIS THS THESSALIAS), 28 Oct. 1905

    3. 3.

      H MIΚΡΑ (Ι ΜIKRA), 30 Oct. 1905

  2. (b)

    Athens newspapers

    1. 4.

      NEON ΑΣΤΥ (NEON ASTY), 3 Nov. and 6 Νov. 1905

    2. 5.

      ΧΡΟΝΟΣ (CHRONOS), 6 Νov. 1905

    3. 6.

      ΕΜΠΡΟΣ (EMPROS), 7 Nov. 1905

The information contained in the above press reports about the earthquake impact is included in Table 3. A short review of some Thessalia Province newspaper reports was published by Papaioannou (2018). We have also collected additional contemporary press reports from newspapers published in Athens, in Thessalia Province and in Constantinople (Istanbul). However, they are not mentioned here since they just repeat information contained in the reports listed above.

1.2 Manuscripts

  1. (7)

    National Observatory of Athens Manuscript (NOA-MS)

After the establishment of the Institute of Geodynamics at NOA as the seismological service of the country in 1892, its scientific staff started the systematic record of earthquakes occurring in Greece from 1892 up to 1915 inclusive on the basis of macroseismic observations. The earthquakes were listed in chronological order in an unpublished manuscript called “Book of Earthquakes.” In “Book of Earthquakes, Vol. 2,” covering the time period from 1899 to 1915, there is a short section about the 1905 Athos earthquake (NOA-MS) which reads as follows:

"In the seismograph [of Agamennone type] at Athens, maximum amplitude of 100 mm was recorded at 23 h 47 min 50 s but the record continued until 23 h 55 min. The astronomical pendulum Fenon stopped at 23 h 53 min 38 s…According to press reports, that earthquake was destructive in Mt. Athos. Since 1585, no such a destructive earthquake happened. In Iviron monastery three chapels collapsed, and all the rooms rendered useless. The ground around the monastery subsided in many places. In general, all the monasteries suffered destruction. Rocks thrown from the mountain destroyed 8 monastic cells and crushed 11 monks.

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    Manuscript-1 archived in Mt. Athos (ATHMS-1)

This manuscript, dated 1 [O.S.]/14 [N.S.] Νovember 1905, was written on 1 Νov. 1905 [O.S.] by an eyewitness monk named Avimelech Mikragiannanitis. It was published later in the religious book by Rodostolos (2004) (BOOK-1). However, the manuscript remained unknown to the seismological community. The points of interest to this study read as follows:

In the night of 26th to 27th October [O.S.], around midnight, the monks of Athos awoke by terrible but distant, submarine roars and the frightful shaking of the entire peninsula…The entire cone [mountain] of Athos reshaped due to the so many falls of marble rocks…Great disaster happened in the Iviron monastery which rendered nearly uninhabited since many parts of it collapsed including the church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary built in the 11th century. The ground of the monastery was shaken and new water springs were created. From the rest of 19 monasteries the Great Lavra one was damaged…as well as the cells in the skiti of Kafsokalivia. In the nearby arsanas of Perdiki five seculars and six monks were situated onboard six fishing boats. All of them but one monk submerged taken away by the sea which rose up to 3 m. For it happened that the uphill part of the mountain near St. Peter thrown down covering a distance of half a mile [along the beach]…One monk survived since he rest upon a wooden beam. He was also able to save a secular who jammed in the rocks…6 days after the terrible earthquake we still feel several shocks.

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    Manuscript-2 archived in Mt. Athos (ATHMS-2)

This document is an unpublished manuscript of the Codex (p.185) of the Kafsokalivion Monastery written during 1915. A photograph of the manuscript was kindly provided to us by Father Patapios who currently gets monastic life at that monastery (Fig. 9). In this document the 1905 earthquake and its effects are described as follows:

Fig. 9
figure 9

Photograph of the front page of the manuscript of the Codex (p.185) stored at Kafsokalivion Monastery

Full size image

During 1905 in the entire Mt. Athos a catastrophic earthquake happened which destroyed partly many buildings and monastic cells at the monasteries of Iviron, Great Lavra and Kastamonitou. The rest monasteries suffered little damage. In particular, damage was caused at the Kafsokalivion monastery where many cells collapsed by the falling stones. The same happened at cells of St. Anna, St. Basil as well as of the Romanian St. John and at other hermitages. The most horrible event is that seven monks and two seculars, totally nine persons, were crushed and sunk. This happened while those persons were fishing close to Perdiki [near Kafsokalivion Monastery]…where part of the mountain detached and thrown into the sea… On 6 o’clock evening [midnight] a cave, where four fathers were praying, was shaken violently, and big stones fell in an extremely steep ground…carrying away the cells situated outside the cave up to the sea, which is lying at a distance of 300 m downhills.

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    The book by Rodostolos (2004) (BOOK-1).

This book not only reproduces the manuscript ATHMS-1, but also contains testimonies by survivors of the 1905 event collected by the book’s author. Here, we reproduce a passage regarding the testimony of monk Isidoros who at the event time was standing in the arsanas near Perdiki. This testimony very likely refers to the survival of the two monks mentioned in the document ATHMS-1.

…Suddenly Isidoros found himself floating on the sea being rest on a wooden beam…a tidal wave thrown him violently up to the mountain and jammed him in the cliff near Perdiki site… Eventually monk Isidoros survived since the water ebbed away was uncapable to drift him back to the sea…Isidoros narrated also the surviving of one of his colleagues…

Another testimony of interest is the one provided to the author of BOOK-1 by the monk Amvrosios who at the event time was in Great Lavra Monastery: “…A colleague, monk Varnavas by name, was killed in his Skiti in St Basil by a rolling big stone that crushed his cell…”.

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    Two contemporary letters (LETT-1 & LETT-2)

Bishop Chrysostomos Lavriotis (1905), being an eyewitness of the 1905 earthquake, sent a comprehensive letter to the Ecumenical Patriarch Joachim III in Constantinople (Istanbul) narrating the destructive effects of the earthquake in Mt. Athos. LETT-1 dated 3 [O.S.]/16 [N.S.] November 1905 was published in a contemporary religious journal and later reproduced in BOOK-1. Of relevance is also a postscript (LETT-2) dated 4 [O.S.]/17 [N.S.] November 1905 and inserted at the end of LETT-1. The main points of LETT-1, which are of interest to our study, have as follows:

During that ill-omened night, five fishing boats with monks and seculars were situated in arsanas of St. Pantes [All Saints]. Suddenly they felt a dull din and saw a flame coming out from the seashore. At the same time the entire part of the mountain lying above Kafsokalivia uphill to Kria Nera rolled down to the sea accompanied by smoke. The sea rose and overtopped arsanas, the boats crushed or shattered. Only 3 out of 13 persons survived, 5 of them were standing in arsanas…No damage happened in the skiti of Kafsokalivia; however, it filled up with stones that fell from above…The same happened in St. Anna… In Provatas several cells suffered either small or great damage…In Karyes town small wall fissures happened and chimneys were fallen. In Kerasia almost nothing happened, while Panagia and Koryfi remained intact. The area of St. Peter rendered susceptible to subsidence…Amazingly oversized stones were thrown from mountain summits near Palamas…

Document LETT-1 concluded with a postscript (LETT-2) referring to the large 1585 earthquake.

1.3 Scientific Publications (See Main Text and Table 3)

(12) Eginitis (1910); (13) Critikos (1932); (14) Critikos (1933); (15) Mylonas (1995); (16) Kadas (1996); (17) Kaloutsis (2000) (BOOK-2); (18) Barksy (2009) (BOOK-3).

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Triantafyllou, Ι., Zaniboni, F., Armigliato, A. et al. The Large Earthquake (~ M7) and Its Associated Tsunami of 8 November 1905 in Mt. Athos, Northern Greece. Pure Appl. Geophys. 177, 1267–1293 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-019-02363-5

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