1509 Constantinople earthquake

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1509 Constantinople earthquake
1509 Constantinople earthquake is located in Turkey
1509 Constantinople earthquake
Date 10 September 1509 (1509-09-10)
Magnitude 7.2 Ms
Epicenter 40°54′N 28°42′E﻿ / ﻿40.9°N 28.7°E﻿ / 40.9; 28.7Coordinates: 40°54′N 28°42′E﻿ / ﻿40.9°N 28.7°E﻿ / 40.9; 28.7[1]
Areas affected Ottoman Empire
Casualties 10,000

The 1509 Constantinople earthquake, referred to as "The Lesser Judgment Day" (Turkish: Küçük Kıyamet) by contemporaries, occurred in the Sea of Marmara on 10 September 1509 at about 10pm. The earthquake had an estimated magnitude of 7.2 ± 0.3 on the surface wave magnitude scale.[2] Forty-five days of aftershocks followed the earthquake, as well as a tsunami. Over a thousand houses and 109 mosques were destroyed, and an estimated 10,000 people died.


The Sea of Marmara is a pull apart basin formed at a releasing bend in the North Anatolian Fault, a right-lateral strike-slip fault. This local zone of extension occurs where this transform boundary between the Anatolian Plate and the Eurasian Plate 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 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 show evidence of both normal and strike-slip motion.[3] Movement on this fault, which bounds the Çınarcık Basin, is the most likely cause of the 1509 event.[2]

A 1529 woodcut showing damage to the Fatih Mosque


The area of significant damage (intensity ≥ 7) extended from Çorlu in the west to Izmit in the east. Galata and Büyükçekmece also suffered severe damage. In Constantinople many houses collapsed, chimneys fell and walls cracked. The newly built Bayezid II Mosque was badly damaged, the main dome was destroyed and a minaret collapsed. The Fatih Mosque suffered damage to its four great columns and the dome was split. The former church of Hagia Sophia survived almost unscathed although a minaret collapsed. Inside the mosque, the plaster that had been used to cover up the Byzantine mosaics inside the dome fell off, revealing the Christian images.[2]

The number of dead and injured is hard to estimate, with different sources giving widely varying accounts from 1,000 to 13,000. It is believed that some members of the Ottoman dynasty died in this earthquake. Earthquake shocks continued for 45 days after the big earthquake. People were unable to return to their homes for 2 months.

Woodcut depicting the effects of the 1509 earthquake



From the area and intensity of shaking, a 70 km (43 mi) fault rupture has been estimated.[2]


A tsunami is mentioned in some sources with a run-up of greater than 6.0 m (19.7 ft), but discounted in others.[2] A turbidite bed has been recognised in the Çınarcık Basin, whose deposition matches the date of the earthquake.[4]


  1. ^ Ambraseys, N.N.; Jackson J.A. (2000). "Seismicity of the Sea of Marmara (Turkey) since 1500". Geophysical Journal International 141 (3): F1–F6. Bibcode:2000GeoJI.141F...1A. doi:10.1046/j.1365-246x.2000.00137.x. 
  2. ^ a b c d e Ambraseys, N. N. (December 2001). "The Earthquake of 1509 in the Sea of Marmara, Turkey, Revisited". Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 91 (6): 1397. Bibcode:2001BuSSA..91.1397A. doi:10.1785/0120000305. 
  3. ^ Armijo, R.; Meyer B., Navarro S., King G. & Narka A. (2002). "Asymmetric slip partitioning in the Sea of Marmara pull-apart: a clue to propagation processes of the North Anatolian Fault?". Terra Nova 14 (2): 80–86. doi:10.1046/j.1365-3121.2002.00397.x. Retrieved 2010-02-06. 
  4. ^ Lozefski, G.; McHugh C., Cormier M-H., Seeber L., Çagatay N., Okay N. (2004). "Provenance of turbidite sands in the Marmara Sea, Turkey: a tool for submarine paleoseismology". Retrieved 6 February 2010.