Ancient destructive earthquakes in Chersonesus Taurica and their importance for a long-term seismic hazard assessment of the Southwestern Crimea region

Abstract

Continuing the author’s earlier works, the signs of ancient destructive earthquakes in the southwest Crimea have been collected and analyzed. These signs are considered using archeoseismological method based on the data of multiannual archeological excavations at Chersonesus Taurica and agricultural hinterland around it (chora) separately on each period of total destruction, reconstruction and new construction, and on structures of different purposes and degrees of earthquake-resistance (defensive structures, large civil buildings, dwellings, fortified estates, necropolises, and burials). Indirect signs are also involved. Both direct and indirect signs unambiguously contribute to form the general scenarios of considerable destruction in the polis and its chora, with the disturbance of entire socioeconomic life, which occurred in 340(±20) and 105(±5) BC as a result of strong earthquakes with I = VIII–IX (on MSK-64 scale). Based on the results of earlier works on destructive earthquakes of a later historical period in mind, the seismic potential of the Sevastopol source zone has been estimated.