6th Colloquium on historical earthquakes & paleoseismology studies

Archaeoseismological potential of the Upper Rheingraben

24 Oct 2018, 13:45

35m

Han-sur-Lesse

Poster Preference Session 3 Posters Poster Session 1

Speaker

Mr Miklos Kazmer (Eotvos University)

Description

Leydecker's (2011) catalogue lists merely two historical earthquakes between 800 AD and 1499 AD in the northern part of the Rheingraben. Archaeoseismological evidence is provided for several damaging earthquakes during Roman times and the Middle Ages. The Roman villa at Ahrweiler was buried by mudflow. Before 400 AD an earthquake caused liquefaction, which yielded subsidence of floors and walls, created a liquefaction funnel, and injected sand in overlying layers at foundation level. The Roman Porta Nigra of Trier was built in ca. 170 AD. It was damaged by an earthquake causing keystone drop, shifted and rotated masonry blocks. The damaged gate tower was enclosed by a Christian church in ca. 1040. It is held that the first, Roman church in Trier was destoyed by fire. However, the Domstein, a fragment of a former granite column of the church, on display in front of the Dom, does not show any evidence for fire. On the contrary, a conspicuous axial fracture indicates that the first church of Trier was destroyed by an earthquake in the early 5th century. Thermen an der Viehmarkt in Trier suffered a major liquefaction event, causing floor of a Roman swimming pool to collapse and thick walls of the bath to subside. A pool in the Barbarathermen was also heavily damaged by liquefaction. An earthquake damage during the construction of the Speyer Dom (1030-1061) caused the construction of supporting buttresses. Reconstruction of the Mainz dom in 1361, following a collapse of the choir vaulting sometime between 1319-1361, left behind an odd central pillar. Roman military and civilian architecture of the limes along the Rhine, Carolingian masonry constructions, Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals hide multiple proofs of seismicity during the last two millennia. Further site visits will certainly yield appropriate evidence for past earthquakes along both the western and eastern faults, filling up the temporal gaps in historical and geological data. Reference Leydecker, G. (2011): Erdbebenkatalog für Deutschland mit Randgebieten für die Jahre 800 bis 2008. - Geologisches Jahrbuch, Reihe E 59.